Public perspective on South Korea's oil refining industry: Moving abroad versus remaining in the country

In South Korea, the Government has considered a plan to shut down the domestic oil refining industry while promoting the 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution and 2050 carbon neutrality plan. However, there is still controversy over this. Thus, this article aims to explore the public preference for relocating the oil refining industry abroad to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions versus leaving it in the country to protect jobs. For this purpose, data were collected by conducting a survey of 1000 South Koreans and analyzed. The interviewees were asked to choose one of two alternatives, moving abroad (MA) versus remaining in the country (RC), and then to evaluate the preference strength on a five-point Likert scale. RC was preferred by 4.9 times more people than MA. In addition, the preference strength of the former was 1.4 times greater than that of the latter. These findings are contrary to the Government's plan. Therefore, reflecting public preferences, the Government plan needs to be revised to some extent. In addition, various factors affecting people's preferences were also analyzed by applying the ordered probit model. It was found that interviewees’ experiences and perceptions as well as their characteristics such as income and residence significantly affected their preferences.