Young-Gyun Ahn

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) established an initial strategy for maritime decarbonization and later specified its long-term target of achieving net-zero strategy by 2050. The institutional framework for mid-term measures was introduced by IMO, and mid-term measures were originally scheduled to be adopted at the end of 2025, but will be re-discussed in 2026 due to opposition from some current member states; South Korea relies on maritime transport for over 99% of its total import/export volume, meaning that the national shipping sector constitutes a core infrastructure supporting trade-driven economic activity. However, mid-term measures are expected to increase logistics costs and weaken route competitiveness and contract markets, affecting individual shipping companies and the entire export–import industrial base. However, quantitative analyses of the cross-industry ripple effects remain limited. Existing studies assess regulatory burdens on shipping but rarely estimate economy-wide spillovers or provide empirical guidance for policy strategies. Therefore, research is needed to move beyond regulatory interpretation, assess domestic response capabilities, and quantitatively analyze the macroeconomic impacts of mid-term measures to support sound policy decision-making. This study aims to quantitatively evaluate the nationwide economic impact of the IMO mid-term measures and propose strategic policy solutions for effective domestic responses.

Short-sea ports in Korea are classified as national or local according to their management and operation entities. Korea has 29 ports, of which 11 are nationally managed and 18 are locally managed. Meanwhile, according to Korea’s Harbor Act, short-sea ports are designed to support the promotion of benefits such as handling cargo required for local industries, transportation of passengers, and revitalization of tourism. However, even though they are designated as short-sea ports, there are cases in which the initial designation purpose was not achieved because of the minor traffic volume and number of passengers. Consequently, this study evaluated the operational efficiency of 29 Korean short-sea ports employing the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and presented the operational efficiency of 29 short-sea ports. Moreover, the study measured the correlation between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the port operation efficiency of 29 Korean short-sea ports. The analysis results of this study are as follows: First, the correlation between port-operation efficiency and sulfur dioxide was −0.41707. Second, the correlation between efficiency and carbon monoxide was −0.39952. Third, the correlation between efficiency and nitrogen dioxide was −0.30888. In summary, this study concludes that the higher the port-operational efficiency, the lower the GHG emissions. Improving the operational efficiency of ports can reduce GHG emissions, which can positively (+) affect port sustainability.

As smart technology in the shipping industry accelerates, demand for technology development, which aims to increase competitiveness by utilizing the latest smart technologies, is increasing. The shipping industry in each country is pushing for developing its smart technologies at a rapid pace, and it is urgent to prioritize the demand for smart technologies in the shipping industry for sustainable industry growth. The purpose of the present study is to verify the importance and urgency of smart technologies in the shipping industry, and the present study surveys 74 domestic and foreign shipping industry officials, covering shipping companies, brokers, governments, etc. The importance and urgency of each smart technology item in the shipping industry are questioned in a survey. It is necessary to focus investment on specific smart shipping items under a limited budget, and, since the priorities presented in this study were derived through comprehensive collection of opinions from 74 shipping experts, the priorities presented in this study are expected to be effective reference values when implementing sustainable shipping investment policies. According to an interview analysis on importance and urgency, both “autonomous ships” and “blockchain” items show high importance and urgency. Since both importance and urgency are high, strategic priorities are the highest, and it is expected to contribute effectively to enhancing the smartness of the shipping industry when it focuses its investment capabilities in those fields.

In China, after experiencing high resource dependence (RD) and extensive development, some regions that once had abundant resource reserves have fallen into a state of long-term economic stagnation. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of the relationship, the influencing mechanisms, and the key influencing factors between natural resources and regional economic development will help to clarify the change in and the development of China’s resource-based regions. This study takes 19 resource-based provinces in China as the research object, and it builds an analysis model that includes the regional economic growth, the RD, the institutional quality (IQ), the technological innovation (TI), and other variables, on the basis of panel data from 2000 to 2019. China’s actual research conclusions. First, there is a substantial negative correlation between RD and economic development; that is, at the current stage of economic development in the sample provinces, the resource-curse (RC) phenomenon exists, and RD has become an obstacle to economic growth. Moreover, through further research, we find that institutional relationships between quality and economic growth are not apparent, but there is a significant positive correlation between the interaction term of the IQ and RD and economic growth. Finally, TI plays an important intermediary function in the relation between RD and economic growth; high-quality TI can significantly reduce the adverse impact of RD on economic growth. The conclusions of this study help enrich the connotation of the “resource curse” theory in terms of emerging economies, and the policy implications have guiding significance for China’s ongoing “regional economic transformation and sustainable development.”

Along with the growth of the marine tourism industry, the number of global cruise tourists is rapidly increasing; the competition among regions to attract cruise tourists is increasing. The current study aims to verify that the global cruise tourism industry can be sustainable through its inherent power for long-term balanced convergence within the industry and can flexibly respond to external shocks such as COVID-19. This study applies the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to estimate the long-term balance function that determines the number of world cruise tourists. This study reveals that the number of world cruise tourists finally converges to long-term balance if the number of world cruise tourists at present is lower than the one at long-term equilibrium. In summary, the results of the VECM in the present study suggest the presence of an “invisible hand” in the global cruise tourism industry converging to a long-term balance. A few previous studies have suggested ways to increase global cruise tourists and promote the cruise tourism industry through qualitative methods, however, little research has estimated the decision function of the number of cruise tourists at a long-term equilibrium point. This study shows the dynamic characteristics of the cruise tourism market using the VECM.