The Transition Analysis of the Changes in Energy Intensities by Means of Link Input-Output Tables, 1975-1990 : The Case of the Republic of Korea (The 15th International Academic Seminar)

The total energy requirements, sometimes called the energy intensities, are the measure of the direct and indirect energy (measured in physical units-for example, British thermal units) required to produce a unit of each sector's output. This study attempts to compute the energy intensities by the hybrid-units energy input-output model on the assumption that we make no distinction between the notion of direct and indirect input requirements to produce a unit output, γ_ and the notion of direct and indirect output requirements to support a unit of final demand, b_ in case of all off-diagonal elements for the convenience of computation. The study objectives of this paper are twofold : 1) To examine into the transition of the changes in energy intensities for the 35 manufacturing sectors estimated by the 1975-1990 Link Input-Output Tables on the basis of the hybrid-units, and 2) To execute the decomposition analysis on the sources of the changes in industrial energy use by the central difference equation. The overall effect of the changes in the period 1975-1990 might have three major factors: 1) changes in direct energy intensities, AC; 2) changes in the structure of final demand, ΔF ; 3) changes in the structure of interindustry trading, Δ(I-A)^. The major research findings of this study can be summarized as follows. 1) The top three sectors in terms of energy intensities for 1975 and 1990 are iron & steel manufacturing, primary iron and steel products and industrial basic chemicals. 2) The total average percent change in energy intensities from 1975 to 1990 was decreased by 19.7%. 3) The most efficient sectors in energy intensities for the past 15 years are medical and optical instruments, and tabacco products sectors, and the most inefficient sectors for the period are polished grains and seafood products sectors. 4) The rate of dependence on energy imports (including primary and secondary energy) measured in Btus steadily increased from 32.7% in 1975 to 41.9% in 1990. 5) On the basis of the decomposition analysis, the effect of changing final demand over time, ΔF, accounted for 98.4% of the total change in energy use. In contrast, the effect of changing energy intensities, ΔC, amounted to -0.5%, indicating very low efficiency of energy use in Korea.6KJ00004083554departmental bulletin pape