Abstract
Like other oil-importing countries, the Republic of Korea was surprised by the rapid oil price escalation of the 1970s. Following the lead of the United States, Europe, and Japan, Korea's energy policy in the mid-1970s was based on reducing oil imports by substituting other fuels, installing more efficient oil conversion processes, or doing without. Due in part to the urgency of the situation and in part to a lack of accumulated analytical capability, it was difficult to analyze in depth which alternatives were best, how much they would cost, or to what extent it was in Korea's best interests to bear large economic costs to reduce oil imports. Rather, Korean policymakers implemented a broad-based oil consumption reduction program to mitigate their immediate oil import problem.
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