• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.782-793
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• 2022

The rise in chronic disease not only has a negative effect on people's lives, but it also increases the cost of medical care owing to the increased usage of medical care as health and medical technology improves, life expectancy rises, and rapid population ageing. In such context, this study examined the difference in the disease cost of hypertension according to demographic information and the effect of the initial diagnosis age and treatment period on the cost. This study used the Korean Health Panel Survey from 2010 to 2017, and selected subjects based on health insurance beneficiaries between the ages of 30 and under 80. With the selected data, the direct and indirect costs of disease loss were calculated according to the cost of illness approach, and we constructed a disease-loss ratio cohort considering the age of diagnosis and time of treatment for hypertension. From the results of the study, the annual cost of disease loss for hypertensive patients differed by gender by 110,107 won, and it was found that the cost increased by 1.8 times as the treatment time increased. In addition, when comparing disease loss ratios between the same age groups, it was found that the disease loss ratios between those in their 60s and 70s were affected by treatment time. This study confirmed that hypertension significantly affects the cost of the disease, and not only requires early diagnosis and management, but also preventive efforts to lower the incidence of hypertensive disease must be strengthened.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 2010

Disposal methods of managing carcass in Korea livestock production systems include burying, digesting, rendering, carcass dumping to manure pile, dead animal disposer and mini-incinerator. Burying was usually the most practical method of carcass disposal in our livestock farms. Burying, carcass dumping to manure pile, dead animal disposer and mini-incinerator may have environmental regulatory and economic liabilities when used as a means of carcass disposal. In many cases in this survey, these disposal methods offer a poor choice for the producer due to individual site conditions, geology, cost, air emissions, rendering plants. A survey questionnaire that addressed the issues to livestock producers was prepared. The questionnaire addressed two main topics as follows: 1) types of livestock and generation amounts of carcass 2) Number of breeding animals and disposal methods of livestock mortality. A total of 36 livestock producers were interviewed. The results of obtained in this survey were summarized as follows: The number of breeding poultry, swine, beef cow and dairy cow was 251,000, 2,600, 142 and 92 heads per year and the generation amounts of annually carcass was 0.46, 15.32, 0.36, 1.36 tons per year of each poultry, swine, beef cow and dairy cow farms, respectively. The disposal methods of carcass were burying (42%), carcass dumping to manure pile (36%), rendering (8%), incineration (6%), digesting (6%), carcass disposer (2%), respectively. These results can be used as basic information to establish the standard of carcass composting facility.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.77-98
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• 2013

China, the world's largest $CO_2$ producer, is likely to be obligated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the post-Kyoto protocol. This paper estimates a Shephard input distance function for the Chinese fossil-fueled power generation sector to measure the shadow price of $CO_2$ emissions, technical efficiency, and indirect Morishima elasticities of substitution between inputs. Empirical results show that, on average, it costs approximately 3.2 US dollars per year to reduce $CO_2$ emissions by one ton over the period 1981-2009. This finding indicates that Chinese power sector is expected to benefit from selling emission permits to other countries such as Korea and Japan, given that our estimate for China is lower than the ones previous literatures estimated for the power sector in these countries. The maximum attainable average $CO_2$ reduction potential amounts to approximately 25 million tons per year by improving technical efficiency. Capital is substitutable with both coal and oil and capital is relatively more readily substituted for these fuels.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.3-25
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• 2012

Generally speaking, firms, faced with a regulatory environment, are likely to use more or less inputs than optimal level due to allocative inefficiency of inputs. This paper, first, tests allocative efficiency of fuel inputs and calculates the divergence between the actual and optimal levels of each fuel input conditional on the optimal level of capital stock in Korean thermal power industry. Then, given that each fuel is efficiently allocated. potential reduction of $CO_2$ is estimated over the period 1987~2008. The null hypothesis of allocative efficiency with respect to all fuels is rejected, indicating that thermal power plants fail to attain cost minimization subject do market prices. Allocative efficiency between each pair of fuels is also tested; efficient uses of fuels relative to each other are all rejected. Empirical results indicate that coal and gas are used more and oil is used less than optimal level. On average, more than 10 million tons of $CO_2$ per year could be reduced by achieving allocative efficiency of fuels.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.49-82
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• 2004

The study aimed to evaluate cancer damage cost due to risk from benzene inhalation. We performed health risk assessment based on US EPA guideline to estimate annual population risk in Ulsan metropolitan city. Also, we estimated a willingness-to-pay amount for reducing a cancer mortality rate to evaluate a value of statistical life. We combined the annual population risk and the value of statistical life to calculate the cancer damage cost. In the health risk assessment, we applied the benzene unit risk ($2.2{\times}10^{-6}{\sim}7.8{\times}10^{-6}$) in the US EPA'S Integrated Risk Information System to assess the annual population risk. Average concentration of benzene in ambient air is $7.88{\mu}g/m^3$(min: 1.16~max: $23.32{\mu}g/m^3$). We targeted an exposure population of 516,641 persons who aged over 30 years old. Using a Monte-Carlo simulation for uncertainty analysis, we evaluated that the population risk of benzene during ten years in Ulsan city is 2.90 persons (5 percentile: 0.32~95 percentile: 9.11persons). And the monthly average WTP for 5/1,000 cancer mortality reduction during ten years is 14,852 Won(95% C.I: 13,135~16,794 Won) and the implied VSL is 36 million Won(95% C.I: 30~40 million Won). Cancer damage cost due to risk from benzene inhalation during 10 years in Ulsan city is about 104 million Won(5 percentile: 13~95 percentile: 328 million Won). Health benefit cost to reduce a cancer mortality risk of benzene is about 50 million Won is Ulsan metropolitann city. But, it is very important that this cost is not for all health damage cost of cancer mortality in some area. We just recommended a model for evaluating a cancer risk reduction, so we must re-evaluate an integrated application of total VOCs damage cost including benzene.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2023

Korean facility horticulture and hydroponic cultivation methods increase, requiring the management of waste water generated. In this study, the amount of fertilizer contained in the discharged waste liquid was determined. By evaluating this as a price, it was suggested to reduce water treatment costs and recycle fertilizer components. It was evaluated based on the results of major water quality analysis of waste liquid by crop, such as tomatoes, paprika, cucumbers, and strawberries, and in the case of P component, it was analyzed by converting it to the amount of phosphoric acid (P₂O₅). The amount of nitrogen (N) can be calculated by discharging 1,145.90kg·ha^-1 of tomatoes, 920.43kg·ha^-1 of paprika, 804.16kg·ha^-1 of cucumbers, 405.83kg·ha^-1 of strawberries, and the fertilizer content of P₂O₅ is 830.65kg·ha^-1 of paprika, 622.32kg·ha^-1 of tomatoes, 477.67kg·ha^-1 of cucumbers. In addition, trace elements such as potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn) were also analyzed to be emitted. The price per kg of each item calculated by averaging the price of fertilizer sold on the market can be evaluated as KRW, N 860.7, P 2,378.2, K 2,121.7, Ca 981.2, Mg 1,036.3, Fe 126,076.9, Mn 62,322.1, Zn 15,825.0, Cu 31,362.0, B 4,238.0, Mo 149,041.7. The annual fertilizer loss amount for each crop was calculated by comprehensively considering the price per kg calculated based on the market price of fertilizer, the concentration of waste by crop analyzed earlier, and the average annual emission of hydroponic cultivation. As a result of the analysis, the average of the four hydroponic crops was 5,475,361.1 won in fertilizer ingredients, with tomatoes valued at 6,995,622.3 won, paprika valued at 7,384,923.8 won, cucumbers valued at 5,091,607.9 won, and strawberries valued at 2,429,290.6 won. It was expected that if hydroponic drainage is managed through self-treatment or threshing before discharge rather than by leaking it into a river and treating it as a pollutant, it can be a valuable reusable fertilizer ingredient along with reducing water treatment costs.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.554-564
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to assist farmers in determining the optimal time for the shipment of stored apples by investigating the market trends, storage status and release dates of low-temperature stored apples. We surveyed 300 apple cultivation farms in Daegu, Gyeongbuk Province, which is the main producer of apples, and examined the cultivars, cultivation areas, storage conditions, and shipment status of apples. The main results are as follows: the proportion of apples cultivatedat different ripening times was surveyed. According to the results, the proportions of early, middle and late varieties were 78.3%, 63.7% and 96.0%, respectively. Also, 48.7% of the farm households surveyed had cold storage facilities. The average storage cost per apple box(15kg) was 978.3 won for self-storage and 1,771.8 won for consignment storage. For the six(6) months between November and April, the proportion of shipped apples was 91.6% of the total stored apples. The (average total?)annual apple shipment, including apples stored in general storage warehouses, was 744.4 boxes. The (average total?) annual shipment of cold storage apples was 616 boxes. The stored apples were mainly shipped to 'wholesale markets', which have the highest sales share, followed by 'production site collectors' and then 'supermarkets'. The most common shipping method of the apples was by general trucks, followed by low-temperature trucks, and finally by delivery services. The analysis of the factors influencing the decision to release apples by period showed that it was affected by the storage cost, loss rate, and customary shipping in the off-season(from May to August). On the other hand, in the general release season(from November to April), the statistically significant decision factors for the release of apples were the future expected price, storage cost and decision of the leading farmer groups. For farmers with a high share of general shipment, the deciding factors for the release of apples were the future expected price, storage cost, high income expectation, and decision by leading farmers.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.365-370
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• 2012

In this study, Economic analysis of supercritical coal-fired power plant with $CO_2$ capture process was performed. For this purpose, chemical absorption method using amine solvent, which is commercially available and most suitable for existing thermal power plant, was studied. For the evaluation of the economic analysis of coal-fired power plant with post-combustion $CO_2$ capture process in Korea, energy penalty after $CO_2$ capture was calculated using the power equivalent factor suggested by Bolland et al. And the overnight cost of power plant (or cost of plant construction) and the operation cost reported by the IEA (International Energy Agency) were used. Based on chemical absorption method using a amine solvent and 3.31 GJ/$tonCO_2$ as a regeneration energy in the stripper, the net power efficiency was reduced from 41.0% (without $CO_2$ capture) to 31.6% (with $CO_2$ capture) and the levelized cost of electricity was increased from 45.5 USD/MWh (Reference case, without $CO_2$ capture) to 73.9 USD/MWh (With $CO_2$ capture) and the cost of $CO_2$ avoided was estimated as 41.3 USD/$tonCO_2$.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.417-449
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of local area concentration of particulate matter on life satisfaction, by matching subjective satisfaction in the Korea Labor & Income Panel Study data with daily data of $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$. We find that the concentration of particulate matter has a significant negative effect on satisfaction. A $1{\mu}g/m^3$ increase in $PM_{10}$($PM_{2.5}$) leads to lower the probability of choosing 'satisfaction' by 0.042%p~0.091%p(0.034%p~0.153%p) and a 1% increase in annual income per household raises the probability of choosing 'satisfaction' by 0.16%p~0.18%p respectively. To estimate the monetary value of reducing $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$, we calculate willingness-to-pay for mitigating air pollution, which represents the tradeoff between the reduction in particulate matter and income. We find that people on average are willing to pay \108,787($96)~209,519($186) for a $1{\mu}g/m^3$ reduction in $PM_{10}$ and to pay 89,345($79)~362,930($322) in $PM_{2.5}$. This amount corresponds to 0.26%~0.50%(0.22%~0.88%) of the average annual household income in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.217-225
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• 2013

It is time to develop new renewable energy that could fundamentally replace fossil fuel, which has been increasingly needed due to environmental pollution and energy security. Korean marine bio-energy development project is planned to produce 50% of total bioenergy. This study attempts to measure the greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits of marine bio-energy development project through contingent valuation method. Single bounded dichotomous choice (SBDC) is applied with spike model. The results show that the average willingness to pay are estimated to be KRW 4,190 at SBDC, per household per year. If the result has been expanded to the region which is survey conducted, KRW 50.1 billion annually. These quantitative information can be usefully utilized in the cost benefit analysis to implement project and policy-making for the industrialization of marine bio-energy development project.