A Study on the Economies of Scale in the Korean LNG Industry
摘要
KOGAS has maintained its position as a monopoly in Korean LNG supply industry for the past decade. A Rapid increase in demand due to environmental regulation causes a large amount of investment into LNG supply industry and let many firms consider self-supplying by entering LNG market. This study presents a set of empirical results on the economies of scale in Korean LNG industry in order to provide a basic input for an investigation of new industrial structure. This study uses an econometric estimation method using translog cost function. To solve the problem of data shortage, we use panel data including those of 5 foreign LNG companies. This study found that Korean LNG industry is still in the range of economies of scale and it is expected that economies of scale will be exhausted in the level of 4 times larger output than that of 1996. (author). 9 refs., 3 tabs., 2 figs.