IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bba/j00001/v1y2022i1p1-19d9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Does Green Trade Affect the Environment? Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Huiling Liu

    (School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China)

  • Heng Lei

    (School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China)

  • Youcheng Zhou

    (Department of Accounting, Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK)

Abstract

This study focuses on the impact of trade in environmental goods (green trade) on the environment. We found that green trade can decrease pollution levels by exploiting a panel of 277 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2013 and using the instrumental variable (IV) strategy. However, total trade openness is far less favorable to the environment. We also found that both green imports and exports are conducive to the Chinese environment, while ordinary green trade performs better than green processing trade. Nevertheless, the effects of green trade are restricted by a city's purchasing power and absorptive capacity, as well as the classifications of environmental goods. Furthermore, green trade mainly promotes local green technological progress to benefit the environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Huiling Liu & Heng Lei & Youcheng Zhou, 2022. "How Does Green Trade Affect the Environment? Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Analysis, Anser Press, vol. 1(1), pages 1-19, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:1:y:2022:i:1:p:1-19:d:9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/1/1/2/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.anserpress.org/journal/jea/1/1/2
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel L. Millimet & Jayjit Roy, 2016. "Empirical Tests of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis When Environmental Regulation is Endogenous," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 652-677, June.
    2. Harrison, Ann, 1996. "Openness and growth: A time-series, cross-country analysis for developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 419-447, March.
    3. Jeffrey A. Frankel & Andrew K. Rose, 2005. "Is Trade Good or Bad for the Environment? Sorting Out the Causality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 85-91, February.
    4. Stern, David I. & Jotzo, Frank, 2010. "How ambitious are China and India's emissions intensity targets?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 6776-6783, November.
    5. Cherniwchan, Jevan, 2017. "Trade liberalization and the environment: Evidence from NAFTA and U.S. manufacturing," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 130-149.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Mengying & Ren, Siyu & Xie, Guo, 2024. "Going “green trade”: Assessing the impact of digital technology application on green product export," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Haoqiang Yuan, 2024. "Investigating the Nexus Between Environmental Information Disclosure and Green Development Efficiency: The Intermediary Role of Green Technology Innovation—a PSM-DID Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 11653-11683, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Banerjee, Soumendra Nath & Roy, Jayjit & Yasar, Mahmut, 2021. "Exporting and pollution abatement expenditure: Evidence from firm-level data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    2. Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Walid Oueslati, 2018. "Do deep and comprehensive regional trade agreements help in reducing air pollution?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 743-777, December.
    3. Ryan Abman & Clark Lundberg & Michele Ruta, 2024. "The Effectiveness of Environmental Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(6), pages 2507-2548.
    4. LaPlue, Lawrence D., 2019. "The environmental effects of trade within and across sectors," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 118-139.
    5. Roy, Jayjit, 2017. "On the environmental consequences of intra-industry trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 50-67.
    6. Haas, Levi & Schenk-Hoppé, Klaus R., 2019. "International Trade: Smarten up to talk the talk," MPRA Paper 99096, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Jevan Cherniwchan & Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2017. "Trade and the Environment: New Methods, Measurements, and Results," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 59-85, September.
    8. Natalia Zugravu-Soilita, 2018. "The impact of trade in environmental goods on pollution: what are we learning from the transition economies’ experience?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(4), pages 785-827, October.
    9. Barrows, Geoffrey & Ollivier, Hélène, 2021. "Foreign demand, developing country exports, and CO2 emissions: Firm-level evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    10. Jingbo Cui & On Kit Tam & Bei Wang & Yan Zhang, 2020. "The environmental effect of trade liberalization: Evidence from China's manufacturing firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(12), pages 3357-3383, December.
    11. Aller, Carlos & Ductor, Lorenzo & Grechyna, Daryna, 2021. "Robust determinants of CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    12. Thais Nunez-Rocha & Camelia Turcu, 2019. "Trade in Fuels and Environmental Regulation: A Two-Sided Story," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(2), pages 302-343, June.
    13. Ho Sin-Yu & Iyke Bernard Njindan, 2019. "Trade Openness and Carbon Emissions: Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 70(1), pages 41-67, April.
    14. Houssem Eddine Chebbi & Marcelo Olarreaga & Habib Zitouna, 2011. "Trade Openness Andco2emissions In Tunisia," Middle East Development Journal (MEDJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(01), pages 29-53.
    15. Zheng Wang, 2021. "Blame the Foreigners? Exports and Sulfur Dioxide Emissions in China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(2), pages 279-309, October.
    16. Levine, David I. & Rothman, Dov, 2006. "Does trade affect child health?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 538-554, May.
    17. He, Ling-Yun & Huang, Geng, 2021. "How can export improve firms’ energy efficiency? The role of innovation investment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 90-97.
    18. Richter, Philipp M. & Schiersch, Alexander, 2017. "CO2 emission intensity and exporting: Evidence from firm-level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 373-391.
    19. He, Ling-Yun & Huang, Geng, 2022. "Are China's trade interests overestimated? Evidence from firms’ importing behavior and pollution emissions," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Suárez-Varela, Marta & Rodríguez-Crespo, Ernesto, 2022. "Is dirty trade concentrating in more polluting countries? Evidence from Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 728-744.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bba:j00001:v:1:y:2022:i:1:p:1-19:d:9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ramona Wang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.anserpress.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.