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The short and long-run effects of international environmental agreements on trade

Author

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  • Ederington, Josh
  • Paraschiv, Mihai
  • Zanardi, Maurizio

Abstract

Does the ratification of an international environmental agreement (IEA) reduce a country's competitiveness on world markets? In this paper, we take a gravity regression approach to answering this question by using industry-level bilateral trade data and employing time-varying country fixed effects to control for the endogeneity of treaty participation. Based on sample of >200 countries and over 40 years, we find that ratifying an IEA results in a significant compositional shift towards exporting cleaner and importing dirtier manufacturing goods. In addition, we find significant lagged effects to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol as the compositional shift towards exporting cleaner goods becomes even stronger in the long run. However, we find little evidence that the ratification of IEAs contributed to an overall decline in manufacturing exports as we uncover only small and insignificant effects of IEAs ratification on the median-polluting manufacturing industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Ederington, Josh & Paraschiv, Mihai & Zanardi, Maurizio, 2022. "The short and long-run effects of international environmental agreements on trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:139:y:2022:i:c:s0022199622001179
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2022.103685
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    Cited by:

    1. Tran, Trang, 2020. "International Environmental Agreement and Trade in Environmental Goods: The Case of Kyoto Protocol," Conference papers 333198, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    2. Xuehui Han & Yuan Cheng, 2023. "Drivers of Bilateral Climate Finance Aid: The Roles of Paris Agreement Commitments, Public Governance, and Multilateral Institutions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(3), pages 783-821, August.
    3. Zhiyuan Li & Bing Lu & Sili Zhou, 2024. "Production Leakage: Evidence from Uncoordinated Environmental Policies," Working Papers 202413, University of Macau, Faculty of Business Administration.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    International environmental agreements; Trade flows; Gravity equation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • F64 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Environment
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

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