The economic-energy-environmental policy problem: An application of the interactive multiobjective decision method for Chungbuk Province

Abstract

A distinguishing feature of decision making in the public sector is the conflicts between various objectives or priorities. Harmonized decision strategies are required to reconcile the competing values in the decision process. The decision strategies should support the decision maker to make sense out of conflicting values, goals or objectives and to arrive at a wise decision. The interactive learning procedure, in which multiobjective programming is solved in an interactive context, has been suggested as a method for incorporating the preferences of the decision maker, thereby reaching a satisfactory compromise solution. This paper presents an interactive multiobjective programming method by which three conflicting goals, including the maximization of economic growth, the minimization of environmental pollution and the minimization of energy consumption, are compromised. The method is operationalized to find a compromise composition of sectoral outputs in the Chungbuk economy. The employment, pollution and energy consumption multipliers, which are required to implement the proposed method, are calculated from the Chungbuk Multiregion Input-Output Model. Then, the impact multipliers are combined with decision variables to form the objective functions of the multiobjective programming model. Four rounds of iteration have been conducted to reach the final compromise solution. The results of model execution show that the current distributions of output over the 12 industrial sectors are far different from the balanced allocation pattern generated by the compromise solution. If the current production structure is reorganized in accordance with the final compromise solution, the economic-energy-environmental system of Chungbuk Province will be a more balanced one.