Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

We investigate whether the contrasting set of transportation policies in Korea - reductions in fuel taxes and increases in diesel automobile prices - has decreased emissions. Using a random-coefficient discrete choice model and hypothetical policy sets, we estimate the automobile demand of consumers, the market share of cars by fuel type, and total emissions, assuming that consumer preferences for driving costs change over time. Then, we separately analyze the effect of each policy set on automobile sales and emissions, particularly carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter. Our analyses reveal that Korean consumers have become more sensitive toward fuel costs over time and that the emission consequences of Korean policies depend on consumer preferences. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104969

Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Elsevier BV  

This study examines the effects of high-speed railways (HSRs) on gentrification in Japan from 2000 to 2019, using indicators including land prices and income levels. Using the market access index and instrumental variable strategy, we establish a causal relationship between HSR expansion and gentrification. The results show a 39.38% increase in urban land prices and 6.20% rise in urban income compared to a 21.13% decrease in rural land prices and 3.33% decrease in rural income. Additionally, rural areas experienced a population decline of 38.61%, whereas urban migration surged by 71.93%, indicating HSR-driven urban prosperity at the expense of rural areas. Based on our policy simulations, these trends are expected to continue. To mitigate these inequalities, we suggest fare policy adjustments that promote rural–urban travel as an effective gentrification countermeasure. Our findings highlight the importance of holistic infrastructure strategies, including innovative fare models, to achieve equitable urban–rural development.

DOI： 10.1016/j.trd.2024.104346

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Springer Science and Business Media LLC  

This study aimed to investigate whether global air pollution harms human morals beyond physiological and psychological health. To accomplish this, we conducted an original survey involving over 80,000 individuals across 30 countries, inquiring about their recent perceived unethical behaviors. Through regression analyses, we identified global evidence of a positive correlation between local monthly average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and perceptions of unethical behavior. This finding suggests that air pollution may potentially elicit unethical behavior through a complex response mechanism. It is noteworthy that the impact of air pollution on the inclination to perceive unethical behavior is heterogeneous across categories of unethical behavior and countries. For example, the effects of increasing air pollution concentrations vary even within the same European country: an increase in NO2 concentration in Greece and the Netherlands augments the inclination to perceive fatal unethical behaviors such as murder, terrorism, and suicide, while in Germany, NO2 concentration diminishes the inclination to perceive the same types of unethical behaviors. Overall, the societal costs of air pollution may be even more far-reaching than previously acknowledged, and further research is necessary to unveil the intricate response mechanisms underlying this issue.

DOI： 10.1057/s41599-024-03186-z

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Other Link： https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-03186-z

Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Elsevier BV  

Over the past 35 years, the development of high-speed rail (HSR) in Japan has markedly enhanced market access and altered spatial distributional dynamics, thereby transforming the socioeconomic landscape in both urban and rural areas. This study delves into the impact of improved market access on regional disparities, with a particular focus on the shifts in population and economic activity between urban centers and their surrounding peripheral regions. We examine three key hypotheses: (1) HSR influences population dynamics, potentially leading to population decline in underdeveloped areas; (2) it affects demographic patterns, particularly in rural areas; and (3) it contributes to economic disparities, enhancing urban prosperity potentially at the expense of rural regions. Our analysis reveals pronounced effects of HSR: urban areas, exemplified by Tokyo, have seen substantial socioeconomic gains including a 26.10% income rise and an 18.34% population increase. Conversely, rural regions exhibit declining economic indicators with income dropping by 6.32% and population falling by 6.83%, accompanied by aging demographics. These trends, further illuminated by night-time light (NTL) data, underscore the uneven impact of HSR. Simulations suggest the continuation of these patterns with future HSR expansions. The study highlights the need for strategic policy measures to address the growing spatial disparities induced by HSR, advocating equitable infrastructure development and sustainable urban planning.

DOI： 10.1016/j.rtbm.2024.101131

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Rural populations globally tend to report lower subjective well-being (SWB) than their urban counterparts. Although most solutions to this problem have focused on increasing material gains, our research, drawing from Gallup World Poll data and regression analysis with an instrumental variables approach, underscores the importance of postmaterialist values such as free choice, community attachment and education in explaining the disparity. Grounded in Inglehart's theory which traces human aspirations from survival to higher ambitions, and empirical findings on the impact of postmaterialism on well-being, we argue that embracing postmaterialist values is crucial to enhancing rural well-being and lessening the urban-rural divide in terms of SWB. Notably, this holds true not only for countries with high GDP but also for less affluent countries. By exploring a range of well-being indicators, including factors such as positive and negative experiences, and honing in on specific postmaterialist elements, our research provides compelling evidence for prioritizing these postmaterialist values in rural areas to effectively address SWB disparities.

Language：Others   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：MDPI AG  

This study investigates the impact of environmental concerns, concerns about potential accidents, and the perceived advantages of fully autonomous vehicles on individuals’ willingness to buy and the perceived value of these vehicles. Our research, conducted through a comprehensive survey with over 180,000 respondents in Japan and analyzed using structural equation modeling, reveals a nuanced disparity between willingness to buy and perceived value. We find that individuals concerned with the conservation of the natural environment are more likely to purchase fully autonomous vehicles due to their broader interest in societal issues and belief in the potential of new technologies like fully autonomous vehicles as solutions. However, these individuals attribute a lower perceived value to these vehicles, mainly because their adoption does not directly contribute to the conservation of the natural environment. Additionally, our results show that those recognizing the potential advantages of fully autonomous vehicle technology have a higher willingness to buy and perceived value, while those with apprehensions about the technology are less likely to purchase and attribute a lower perceived value to these vehicles. This study offers vital insights for policy and planning, highlighting the complex interplay of factors influencing the willingness to buy and perceived value of fully autonomous vehicles, critical for strategizing their adoption.

DOI： 10.3390/app14010410

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ({IEEE})  

In this article, we reveal how mental support from family, friends, and local authorities - social support (SP) - contributes to inclusivity in the context of fully autonomous vehicles (FAVs). We focus on disaster victims who have trouble driving and test how the information on traumatic experiences relates to their purchase decisions. To this end, we create a unique survey that asks about respondents' purchasing decisions before/after we share information with them on FAV traffic accidents that led to a driver's death. Our results show that SP is crucial for encouraging people to choose FAVs, even after fatal news concerning FAVs is shared, regardless of disaster experience. We also find that other factors, such as safety and convenience, can encourage people to 'substitute' choosing FAVs in place of not choosing FAVs. By adopting integrated choice and latent variable models considering individual heterogeneity over 60 000 respondents, our results indicate possible policy paths through which to utilize SP in creating FAVs as an inclusive transportation mode.

DOI： 10.1109/TEM.2022.3208567

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Language：Others   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1007/s41885-022-00114-w

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Springer Science and Business Media {LLC}  

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Background</jats:title>
<jats:p>Every year, more than 700,000 people die due to suicide, one of the most common reasons for youth death. While many studies have revealed two main factors for suicidal behavior: impulsive suicidal behavior due to mental illness and financial stress, it is not clear what happens if individuals face deterioration of mental health and economic recession. This paper attempts to answer this question and how suicide rates are correlated with these factors.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>
<jats:p>We empirically investigate whether economic recessions and air pollution trigger suicides by examining Japan, a country with one of the highest suicide rates, from 2014 to 2021. We take advantage of the characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic and the periods before the pandemic, when both economic recessions and reductions in air pollution occurred simultaneously. Using monthly and municipal- level data, we construct a triple difference model that takes air pollution and unemployment as treatments.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>Our findings show that high (upper half of each period) levels of air pollution and unemployment have substantial impacts on the suicide rates of adults (22.9% in the short term) and children (42.7% in the short term, 36.0% in the long term), indicating that the increase in suicide rates among children is almost twice as high as that among adults. Our study finds that unemployment and air pollution alone are not associated with increased suicide rates but their simultaneous occurrence triggers suicides during the pandemic.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title>
<jats:p>Our study urges suicide prevention, particularly among children, as an essential consideration for public health. Furthermore, our results indicate the need for the government to allocate resources to recover air quality and the economy simultaneously during a recession to reduce suicide mortality of both child and adults.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>

DOI： 10.1186/s12889-022-14013-y

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Elsevier {BV}  

We investigate whether the information disclosure of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) criteria is more crucial than actions for the financial performance of firms by using two different ratings with more than 1,000,000 samples. Our result shows that disclosure is more important for profits while action is more critical in Tobin's Q and IVA scores.

DOI： 10.1016/j.frl.2021.102108

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Elsevier {BV}  

Reaching carbon neutrality would require the retirement of conventional power sources and substitution with renewable energy sources. Given that immediate substitution from conventional to renewable power sources is not feasible in the status quo, we investigate whether adding residential solar photovoltaic (PV) technology in addition to conventional power sources would reduce residential emissions. We use a large survey dataset of more than 300,000 observations and employ a structural equation model (SEM) to validate our findings. Interestingly, emissions increase by 1.75% if residential PV is adopted, and Japanese citizens with residential PV systems end up using 3.02% more electricity. We also find that pro-environmental consumers may also produce more emissions with PVs. As a result, reaching target carbon reductions in the residential sector would necessitate eliminating conventional energy sources. We address the policy implications for pathways to reduce residential emissions.

DOI： 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105924

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

We review the literature on the motivators of consumers' purchasing decisions regarding autonomous vehicles (AVs), focusing on environmental awareness, vehicle types, concerns about accidents, and merits. The willingness to buy (WTB) and willingness to pay (WTP) for AVs have been extensively studied. However, it is imperative to broaden the outlook and consolidate the existing knowledge base. Although the WTB and WTP for AVs have been studied, automation-level preferences have been underresearched. Based on more than 150,000 observations, we construct a choice model and calculate the WTP for each level of automation. Our results show that there is a disparity between people's WTB and WTP according to the automation level. In particular, we find that the coefficients regarding FAVs' benefits and accidents significantly exceed those related to environmental concerns. Such results indicate that practical benefits and concerns influence AV demand and WTP to a greater extent than environmental awareness. Our model results indicate a disparity between WTB and WTP for AVs that mostly derives from the different types of environmental concerns, concerns about accidents, and perceived benefits from these automobiles. Our results urge policies according to which governments and companies closely examine consumers who exhibit WTB-WTP disparities. Issues relating to demand patterns, WTP, and a suitable policy framework are discussed. (C) 2021 International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd.

DOI： 10.1016/j.iatssr.2021.11.002

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.3389/fclim.2021.701818

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

<jats:p>Motivated by the global fear of the Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, we investigated whether lockdowns save people from air pollution, notably from Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). Using daily satellite data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), we first found that the global NO2 tropospheric vertical column density (TVCD) decreased by 16.5&#37; after the Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) outbreak. Then, we calculated the global health benefits, as the monetized value of life, using the value of a statistical life (VSL). The total global health benefits were approximately 8.73 trillion USD, accounting for 10&#37; of the global GDP; such benefits would be the largest in China, followed by the United States, Japan and Germany. Our results suggest that lockdowns may bring benefits to countries that policy interventions cannot easily bring, thus highlighting the importance of social distancing.</jats:p>

DOI： 10.3390/su132111777

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

As a market for sustainability investing is growing rapidly, understanding the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities on firms' financial performance is becoming increasingly important. In this study, we examine the effect of ESG performance on stock returns and volatility during the financial crisis resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To quantify the impact, we use company-level daily ESG score data and United Nations Global Compact (GC) score data. In our dataset, ESG scores indicate ESG performance that is deemed important to financial materiality, and the GC score indicates the firm reputation for following UN rules. Our results indicate that during the pandemic, an increase in the ESG score, especially the E score component, is related to higher returns and lower volatility. Conversely, increasing GC scores is correlated with lower stock returns and higher volatility. In addition, we find that firms in lower return groups benefit more than other firms. Focusing on energy sector impacts, we show that although the non-energy sector benefits more than the energy sector from increasing E scores, energy sector firms can still reduce their stock price volatility by increasing these scores. Our study offers significant implications for ESG investment strategies during financial crises.

DOI： 10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112330

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)