Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

Figure 8. 
WTO disputes between the U.S. and China, 2002-2016. 
Source: World Trade Organization 
Renewable energy products were one of the goods that caused trade disputes 
between the U.S. and China. The dispute on Chinese solar products emerged in 2012, 
when several other trade disputes were ongoing between China and the U.S. The issue of 
solar products was discussed with the issues of other goods. Therefore, the overall trade 
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World Trade Organization, “Disputes by country/territory.” 
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_by_country_e.htm
 (accessed March 
30, 2017)
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2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
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Submitted by China
Submitted by the US

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conflict between the U.S. and China has affected how solar product trade issue was 
framed and was solved in both countries.
The global financial crisis and the rise of China in the global economy have 
changed the external environment of renewable energy development. The effects of the 
global financial crisis were mostly negative, but the effects of the rise of China were 
more complicated since the effects were different among actors as well as among 
countries. These complicated effects are discussed in each analysis of this research. 
Research design
Among renewable energy sources, this research focuses on solar PV. Solar PV is 
the most substantially growing field in renewable energy in recent years. With this 
growth, a global value chain was created since many solar PV corporations have 
expanded their business overseas. This led solar PV industry to be more globalized 
compared to the other renewable energy industries. To examine the case of the most 
globalized renewable energy industry enables to understand what will happen for the 
other renewable energy sources as the industries of them become globalized. 
This research consists of three separate analyses (Table 4). Each analysis focuses 
on a different aspect of the globalization of renewable energy industry. Analysis 1 and 
Analysis 2 focuses on the effects of multinational renewable energy corporations on 
national policies as actors. Analysis 1 examines the behavior of multinational solar PV 
corporations to change national policies. Since multinational corporations have resources 
and capabilities to affect policies beyond their national boundaries, it is expected that 
they can be critical actors to affect national policies. Analysis 2 focuses on the political 

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interactions among multinational and domestic actors. While the first analysis examines 
the behavior of an actor, the second analysis investigates the interplay of actors to change 
a policy. Finally, Analysis 3 focuses on the change of market conditions by the 
globalization of renewable energy industry. It investigates how national renewable 
energy policies have actually changed under the changes of the global renewable energy 
market. 
Analysis 1 answers: 
How have multinational renewable energy corporations 
affected national policies?
The proposition is that multinational renewable energy 
corporations are more likely to engage in policymaking for favorable policies under the 
challenges of the global market. This proposition was developed based on the 
institutional theory, which will be reviewed in the Chapter 2. To answer this question, a 
content analysis of the 125 annual reports of the top 15 solar PV multinational 
corporations was conducted.
The research question of Analysis 2 is: 
How have diverse actors framed 
renewable energy trade issues?
The proposition, which was also developed grounded in 
the institutional theory, is that the central domestic actors of a renewable energy field 
have framed renewable energy trade issues with a traditional environmental frame. The 
research method is a discourse network analysis. The articles from the seven U.S. 
newspapers on the U.S.-China solar panel trade were used as data. 
Finally, Analysis 3 answers: 
What has caused the increasing divesity in national 
renewable energy policies?
The proposition is that the growth of domestic renewable 
energy industries has caused the diversification of national renewable energy policies as 
renewable energy industries have become globalized. This is grounded in the theory of 

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policy convergence, which will be reviewed in Chapter 2. The research method is a case 
study of the U.S. and South Korea.

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