This study investigates the relationship between corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using GHG emissions data and the CSR index announced by the Korea Economic Justice Institute, we find that companies emitting more GHG are highly rated in the CSR index. This relationship becomes stronger as the firm size increases. This result indicates that reducing GHG, especially for big firms, may not be an effective way to raise the firm’s CSR index as expected. We interpret this result as suggesting that other social contribution behaviours may be valued more than GHG reduction, despite its actual environmental influence. We therefore argue that the current CSR index possibly underestimates the importance of environmental factors, such as GHG reduction, and thus, the index needs to be improved.

This study analyzes the effect of the penalty system in an emission trading scheme (ETS) on pricing and abatement activities. No previous studies have shown that the ways of penalizing for unretired permits specifically might have a crucial role in permit pricing. Most studies show that the penalty rate is fixed, as in the EU-ETS, but this paper focuses on the mechanism that price affects penalty and this again affects price. The Korea ETS case is examined as an example in which the per-unit penalty for unretired permits is determined by the average market price. Based on simple analytical modeling, this study derives policy implications that differ from the pre-determined penalty rate system: that the penalty system linked with market prices causes downward pressure on market prices, that the maximum rate is not very meaningful in pricing, that the multiplication level of the penalty rate affects market prices, and that this price-linked penalizing system can affect the overall level of abatement.

In this article, we analyze a dual currency regime with fiat currency and digital currency and investigate potential crowding-out effects of fiat currency or digital currency under the framework of the traditional monetary economic model. We find that crowding out occurs only under extreme assumptions, i.e., extremely high costs associated with the use (medium of exchange and store of value) of one currency and extremely low costs associated with the use of the other currency.

The Korea Emissions Trading Scheme was formally launched in January 2015, aiming for a 30% reduction in South Korea's carbon emissions by 2030 from the business-as-usual levels. Under this trading mechanism, carbon allowance credits are traded on the Korea Exchange, while offset credits generated from emission-reduction projects are mostly traded over the counter. Exchange trading under the Korea Emissions Trading Scheme faced immediate liquidity problems a few days after its launch. Additionally, offset credits have been consistently traded at a much higher price on the over-the-counter market versus the exchange-traded allowance credits, a scenario opposite to the conventional wisdom. This article examines the causes of this inverse price relationship between these two types of credits as well as the lack of liquidity in exchange trading under the Korea Emissions Trading Scheme. Lessons learned from the Korean carbon market could have important implications for other countries seeking to adopt a similar system.