Analysis of socioeconomic factors influencing wood consumption using statistical classification methods

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26870181
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Civil and environmental engineering; Design and evaluation of sustainable and environmental conscious system
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kayo Chihiro 東京農工大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 助教 (50550183)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 木材消費 / 社会経済因子 / クラスター分析 / 判別分析 / パネルデータ分析 / OECD / BRIICS / 環境クズネッツ曲線

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Suppressing increases in wood consumption can be an effective measure to reduce resource and energy consumption as economic development progresses. To accomplish that, we conducted cluster, discriminant, and panel data analyses for 33 OECD and 6 BRIICS countries to identify socioeconomic factors that determine differences between countries of low wood consumption and high wood consumption.
For plywood, reconstituted panels, and paper/paperboard, the results suggest that an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), represented as an inverted-U curve, exists between per capita GDP and per capita consumption, confirming a tendency for consumption to reach saturation and then decline as economic development progresses. Rising population density and urbanization can contribute to a decrease in per capita wood consumption, whereas the larger the country’s forest area is, the greater per capita wood consumption there will be.

Free Research Field

環境システム工学