Suchergebnisse

The past three decades have witnessed rapid economic development, particularly in countries that have pursued relatively open economic policies. Rising environmental awareness in the 1960s also led to a rapid tightening of pollution regulation in the industrial economies. According to the "pollution havens" hypothesis, the result should have been more rapid growth of dirty industries in unregulated economies that were open to international trade. Using data for the period 1960 to 1995, the authors find that the displacement of pollution to developing countries has not been a major phenomenon for several reasons. Tendencies toward formation of pollution havens have been self-limiting because economic growth has generated countervailing effects through increases in regulation, technical expertise, and investment in cleaner production. In practice, the authors argue that pollution havens have apparently been as transient as low-wage havens.

This paper contributes to the unresolved issue regarding the effect of economic integration on environmental policymaking. In particular, we discuss the joint impact of trade openness and political stability on environmental policymaking. Our theory predicts that the effect of trade integration on environmental policy is conditional on the degree of political stability. Trade integration affects the stringency of environmental policies due to changes in industry bribery behavior, and the effect is conditional on the degree of political stability. The empirical findings support the theory and are robust to alternative specifications. The stringency enhancing effect on environmental policy of trade integration is greater in politically stable countries.