科学研究

As an economist with a specialization in international trade, Dr. Ohyun Kwon’s recent research has focused on the role of currency in international trade and finance, the impact of trade liberalization on the environment, and the economic effects of international sanctions. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Finance from Peking University in 2012 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019. In the Fall of 2019, he joined the Economics Department at Drexel University as an assistant professor.

This paper develops a new method to calculate product-level emission intensities (PLEI) at a highly granular level (harmonized system 6-digit) for nine emission types. Our method disentangles PLEI from the firm-level efficiency factor that varies across firms and years. Using the emissions data from China during 2000-2013, we demonstrate that: (i) PLEI feature immense heterogeneity across products, (ii) 10 percent of products account for over 90 percent of emissions, (iii) PLEI are positively correlated across emission types, and (iv) Chinese exports of emission-intensive products increased faster until 2009 and the trend reversed afterward. We use PLEI to examine both “pollution haven hypothesis” and “pollution haven effect” at the most granular level to date. Our regression results based on China's trading patterns confirm both channels at work during China's trade liberalization since 2001.