A Decomposition Analysis of the Korean Manufacturing Sector: Monetary vs. Physical Outputs
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The title of the paper is unclear. what do you mean by 'activity revaluation approach'? This is not a conventional term in the literature. The models presented in the paper, however, present conventional energy intensity models. Please discuss this.
The paper should discuss objective and tasks in a more detailed manner (Introduction).
The introduction should discuss international context before turning to Korea.
Introduction could be more concise in regards to earlier literature and a new section can be established to discuss the literature on the topic and contribuitions in a more detailed manner.
Discussion does not contain references. Please add arguments related to earlier literature.
The following papers on the use of the IDA for economic analysis should be cited:
Baležentis, T., Galnaitytė, A., Kriščiukaitienė, I., Namiotko, V., Novickytė, L., Streimikiene, D., & Melnikiene, R. (2019). Decomposing dynamics in the farm profitability: an application of index decomposition analysis to Lithuanian FADN sample. Sustainability, 11(10), 2861.
Baležentis, T., Li, T., & Chen, X. (2020). Has agricultural labor restructuring improved agricultural labor productivity in China? A decomposition approach. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 100967.
Author Response
Point 1: The title of the paper is unclear. what do you mean by 'activity revaluation approach'? This is not a conventional term in the literature. The models presented in the paper, however, present conventional energy intensity models. Please discuss this.
Response 1: Good point. We agreed that the “activity revaluation approach” could be unfamiliar. Yes, we used a conventional index decomposition formulation, and the core contribution is investigating physical outputs (activity revaluation) instead of monetary outputs (GDP). Based on your comment, we revised the title as follows:
“A decomposition analysis of the Korean manufacturing sector: monetary vs. physical outputs”
Point 2: The paper should discuss objective and tasks in a more detailed manner (Introduction).
Response 2: Thank you for the suggestion. We tried to elaborate the research gap and corresponding objectives in the 5th paragraph of the Introduction.
Point 3: The introduction should discuss international context before turning to Korea.
Response 3: Another good point. We revised the first paragraph of the Introduction, starting from the international context of the decomposition analysis.
Point 4: Introduction could be more concise in regards to earlier literature and a new section can be established to discuss the literature on the topic and contribuitions in a more detailed manner.
Response 4: Thank you for a helpful suggestion. Following your comment, we make the literature review in the Introduction concise. We had considered building a new literature review section, but we concluded that briefly introducing them in the Introduction and managing some of them in the Discussion would be more effective to show the contribution of this study.
Point 5: Discussion does not contain references. Please add arguments related to earlier literature.
Response 5: Great point! We added discussions compared to the previous studies in the last part of the Discussion section.
Point 6: The following papers on the use of the IDA for economic analysis should be cited:
Baležentis, T., Galnaitytė, A., Kriščiukaitienė, I., Namiotko, V., Novickytė, L., Streimikiene, D., & Melnikiene, R. (2019). Decomposing dynamics in the farm profitability: an application of index decomposition analysis to Lithuanian FADN sample. Sustainability, 11(10), 2861.
Baležentis, T., Li, T., & Chen, X. (2020). Has agricultural labor restructuring improved agricultural labor productivity in China? A decomposition approach. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 100967.
Response 6: Done! Thank you for the suggestion.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper is well and clearly written. It would be good if the discussion was supplemented by comparing the results obtained by AR methods with the results from the paper "Kim, S. (2017). LMDI decomposition analysis of energy consumption in the Korean manufacturing sector. Sustainability, 9(2), 202."
Further more, the conclusion should be supplemented with the potential possibilities of applying the LMDI method based on AR approach in other areas of business.
Author Response
Point 1: The paper is well and clearly written. It would be good if the discussion was supplemented by comparing the results obtained by AR methods with the results from the paper "Kim, S. (2017). LMDI decomposition analysis of energy consumption in the Korean manufacturing sector. Sustainability, 9(2), 202."
Response 1: Thank you for your supportive evaluation, and the good suggestion. We added discussions compared to the previous studies in the last part of the Discussion section, including Kim, S. (2017).
Point 2: Further more, the conclusion should be supplemented with the potential possibilities of applying the LMDI method based on AR approach in other areas of business.
Response 2: Great point! Following your suggestion, we mentioned the potential future research of applying the AR approach to the other industries in the last part of the Conclusion.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
No more remarks
