Browsing by Subject "Economic growth"

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Analysis of the relationship between energy (useful work) and economic growth of the Republic of Korea
(2017-05-08) Yoon, Yongseok; King, Carey Wayne; Energy and Earth Resources
Over the last half-century, Korea has achieved remarkable economic growth enabling it to become the world’s 11th largest economy. Various efforts have been made to identify the driving forces of its rapid economic growth and to verify the relationship between Korea’s energy consumption and economic development. However, conventional energy analyses have limitations because they did not consider the actual services energy provides for economic activities. “Useful work” measures the amount of exergy finally used at the end-use stage, which focuses on the result of an energy use rather than energy input. Moreover, useful work considers both quality of energy and the thermodynamic second-law efficiency, which gives better insights into the role of energy in an economy. Useful work has been an important factor for Korea’s economic development, and it has been affected by industrial structures, economic shocks, and energy policies. Korea’s industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s created a rapid increase in useful work consumption. The oil shocks in the 1970s slightly slowed the growth of useful work consumption and contributed to the diversification of Korea’s energy portfolio. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the growth of Korea’s useful work consumption accelerated again due to the increasing demand in the industry and transportation sectors. After Korea’s financial crisis in 1997, the growth rates of GDP and useful work consumption have slowed down. Korea’s rapid industrialization has increased the shares of mechanical drive and high temperature heat uses, and aggregate exergy efficiency has improved faster than that in other countries. As a result, Korea became able to produce more goods and services with less energy (exergy) inputs, and energy (exergy) intensity has declined. However, useful work intensity has been more stable because of improved exergy efficiency. This shows that Korea’s useful work consumption is more closely related to its economic growth than energy consumption. In this paper, Korea’s energy sectors are briefly introduced, and the processes for estimating useful work from IEA data are summarized. The evolution of Korea’s useful work consumption, exergy efficiency, useful work intensity, and their relationships to Korea’s economic development are also presented.
Energy intensity ratios as net energy measures for selected countries 1978-2010
(2013-12) Maxwell, John Paul; King, Carey Wayne, 1974-; Zarnikau, Jay William, 1959-
Stated simply, this thesis focuses on the relationship between energy and the economy. Using the foundation of King 2010, this analysis expands the scholarship from a U.S. focus to perform Energy Intensity Ratio analysis on forty-four countries for the time period 1978-2010. There are four fuels examined: coal, natural gas, crude oil and electricity. Using both the price and expenditures based Energy Intensity Ratio methods, outputs for each fuel in any applicable sector was determined. In addition, this work compiles an estimate of the total energy expenditures for the majority of the world. By examining the overall expenditures of gross domestic product spent on energy, the data showed two points in time where energy appears to become a constraint on growth. Though this thesis does not answer the question directly as to whether an increase in energy expenditures “causes” an increase in economic growth, or whether an increase in economic growth “causes” an increase in energy expenditures, the research shows that vi there may be a “threshold” effect whereby as energy expenditures become a greater share of output, the ability of economic growth to take place is affected.
Municipal economic growth through green projects and policies
(2012-05) Lindner, Harry Dreyfus; Gamkhar, Shama
Cities generally need economic growth. Green policies and projects are environmentally beneficial, desirable, expected by the public, and pragmatic in the long term. However, there is insufficient research on what, if any, municipal green projects and policies generate economic growth. To address this question, the author created a database of green and economic indicators, and modeled the green indicators to predict the economic indicators. The database included carbon usage, transportation metrics, water usage, the number of green jobs, and the gross domestic product (GDP) for the 100 largest cities, defined by metropolitan statistical area (MSA), in the U.S. To gather data on green indicators, existing green rankings, indices, and reports were evaluated for methodology and usability for this paper. The results of the data-gathering step show the need for more and better data collection. That means an increased number of green indicators should be collected, and data should be collected at the MSA (or county) level for more of the largest cities. Specifically to name some green indicators, data collection on energy usage, buildings, waste, land use, air quality, and food could be improved. Those green indicators would likely be included in a model that uses green indicators to predict green jobs or GDP. However, those were not included for the regressions in this paper. The results of the regressions in this paper show two indicators with promise for predicting economic growth as defined by GDP and number of green jobs: (1) percent of people using public transportation, biking, or walking to work, and (2) public water consumption per person. The first explanatory variable indirectly measures the adoption of policies that promote public transportation, biking, and walking. The results suggest that these policies have a positive effect on GDP and number of green jobs. This means the results suggest that as the percent increases, so does GDP and number of green jobs. The second explanatory variable measures the water conservation policies. The results suggest this variable has a negative, albeit weaker relationship with GDP per person. This means the results suggest as water conservation increases (less water usage per person), the GDP per person increases. This paper offers a methodology and some of the groundwork for building a model to show which, if any, municipal green projects and policies predict economic growth.
Urban planners, economic development planners, and economic growth
(2013-12) Nahavandi, Aynaz; Oden, Michael
A central goal of urban and economic development planning is producing policies and programs to promote economic growth. Urban planners and economic planners always struggle to define economic development policies to improve the growth in way that enhance the quality of life in the community people live and work. Hence, investigation of factors affecting economic growth at the regional level helps decision makers such as urban planners and economic development planners develop smarter policies to increase more opportunities for economic growth. This project aims to look at economic growth from the perspective of urban economic development planners. The main questions of this study include: What is economic growth at the regional level, and what factors influence the growth of US urban regions? Is there any relationship between transportation investments and economic growth? What can urban planners and economic development planners learn from the findings of the growth literature that can better link urban planning with economic development planning and policies? I used research synthesis/meta-study method to review a wide range of studies devoted to economic growth. As neoclassical economists discussed, labor, capital, and human capital and technology are the primary production factors. However, contemporary literature reveals secondary factors that stimulate the efficiency and quality of these primary factors. My findings show that secondary factors such as transportation infrastructure, amenities (schools, housing, weather, and historical, cultural, and recreational centers) and disamenities (pollution, road congestion, and crime rate) influence regional economic growth process. These material factors of economic growth are typically addressed by economists and economic development planners via quantitative analysis of the variables associated with per-capita regional GDP growth. I find, however; that urban planners address a qualitative set of secondary factors related to social norms and institutions. The normative factors include equity, diversity, and housing affordability, and the procedural factors are: public participation, government policies over land use and land development. By reviewing existing regional economic planning, I highlight the lack of strong linkage between economic development planners and urban planners. In the end, an economic growth guideline is developed which might help decision makers such as urban planners and economic development planners derive smarter policies to increase opportunities for economic growth and development.