IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v49y2015i1p235-253.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of trade liberalization on environmental degradation

Author

Listed:
  • Shu-Chen Chang

Abstract

This paper uses a threshold model to estimate the regime-specific marginal effect of trade liberalization and other determinants of environmental degradation in regimes with different levels of corruption. The results show that increasing trade liberalization leads to an increase in carbon dioxide ( $$\mathrm{{CO}_{2}}$$ CO 2 ) emissions in countries with a high level of corruption but to an decrease in countries with low corruption. A U-shaped relationship between $$\mathrm{{CO}_{2}}$$ CO 2 emissions and income exists in low-corruption countries but not in high-corruption countries. Our results also show that an increase in energy use per $1,000 in gross domestic product and fossil-fuel energy consumption will increase $$\mathrm{{CO}_{2}}$$ CO 2 emissions in any country. Moreover, increases in agricultural value and foreign direct investment can decrease environmental degradation in any country. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Shu-Chen Chang, 2015. "The effects of trade liberalization on environmental degradation," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 235-253, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:49:y:2015:i:1:p:235-253
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-013-9984-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11135-013-9984-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-013-9984-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caner, Mehmet & Hansen, Bruce E., 2004. "Instrumental Variable Estimation Of A Threshold Model," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(5), pages 813-843, October.
    2. Aidt, Toke & Dutta, Jayasri & Sena, Vania, 2008. "Governance regimes, corruption and growth: Theory and evidence," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 195-220, June.
    3. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro & Sanctuary, Mark, 2013. "Trade, Transboundary Pollution and Market Size," CEPR Discussion Papers 9412, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Tamazian, Artur & Bhaskara Rao, B., 2010. "Do economic, financial and institutional developments matter for environmental degradation? Evidence from transitional economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 137-145, January.
    5. Kwiatkowski, Denis & Phillips, Peter C. B. & Schmidt, Peter & Shin, Yongcheol, 1992. "Testing the null hypothesis of stationarity against the alternative of a unit root : How sure are we that economic time series have a unit root?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 159-178.
    6. Rothman, Dale S., 1998. "Environmental Kuznets curves--real progress or passing the buck?: A case for consumption-based approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 177-194, May.
    7. Lucas, Robert E.B. & Wheeler, David & Hettige, Hemamala, 1992. "Economic development, environmental regulation, and the international migration of toxic industrial pollution : 1960-88," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1062, The World Bank.
    8. Copeland, Brian R., 2005. "Policy Endogeneity and the Effects of Trade on the Environment," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, April.
    9. Damania, Richard & Fredriksson, Per G. & List, John A., 2003. "Trade liberalization, corruption, and environmental policy formation: theory and evidence," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 490-512, November.
    10. Rauscher, Michael, 1994. "Environmental regulation and the location of polluting industries," Kiel Working Papers 639, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    11. Hansen, Bruce E, 1996. "Inference When a Nuisance Parameter Is Not Identified under the Null Hypothesis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(2), pages 413-430, March.
    12. William T. Harbaugh & Arik Levinson & David Molloy Wilson, 2002. "Reexamining The Empirical Evidence For An Environmental Kuznets Curve," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 541-551, August.
    13. Judith M. Dean, 2002. "Does trade liberalization harm the environment? A new test," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(4), pages 819-842, November.
    14. Brock, William A. & Taylor, M. Scott, 2005. "Economic Growth and the Environment: A Review of Theory and Empirics," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 28, pages 1749-1821, Elsevier.
    15. 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.
    16. Cragg, John G. & Donald, Stephen G., 1993. "Testing Identifiability and Specification in Instrumental Variable Models," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 222-240, April.
    17. Rauscher, Michael, 1994. "Environmental Regulation and the Location of Polluting Industries," CEPR Discussion Papers 1032, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Pashigian, B Peter, 1985. "Environmental Regulation: Whose Self-interests Are Being Protected?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(4), pages 551-584, October.
    19. Yu-Bong Lai, 2006. "Interest Groups, Trade Liberalization, and Environmental Standards," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 34(2), pages 269-290, June.
    20. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413, January.
    21. Gale, Lewis R. & Mendez, Jose A., 1998. "The empirical relationship between trade, growth and the environment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 53-61.
    22. Talukdar, Debabrata & Meisner, Craig M., 2001. "Does the Private Sector Help or Hurt the Environment? Evidence from Carbon Dioxide Pollution in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 827-840, May.
    23. Eric Helland, 1998. "The Enforcement Of Pollution Control Laws: Inspections, Violations, And Self-Reporting," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 141-153, February.
    24. Bose, Niloy & Capasso, Salvatore & Murshid, Antu Panini, 2008. "Threshold Effects of Corruption: Theory and Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1173-1191, July.
    25. Tamazian, Artur & Chousa, Juan Piñeiro & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2009. "Does higher economic and financial development lead to environmental degradation: Evidence from BRIC countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 246-253, January.
    26. Werner Antweiler & Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2001. "Is Free Trade Good for the Environment?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 877-908, September.
    27. Hillman, Arye L & Ursprung, Heinrich W, 1994. "Domestic Politics, Foreign Interests,, and International Trade Policy: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1476-1478, December.
    28. Bommer, Rolf & Schulze, Gunther G., 1999. "Environmental improvement with trade liberalization," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 639-661, November.
    29. Per G. Fredriksson, 1999. "The Political Economy of Trade Liberalization and Environmental Policy," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(3), pages 513-535, January.
    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. Haider Mahmood & Nabil Maalel & Olfa Zarrad, 2019. "Trade Openness and CO 2 Emissions: Evidence from Tunisia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Hakimi, Abdelaziz & Hamdi, Helmi, 2016. "Trade liberalization, FDI inflows, environmental quality and economic growth: A comparative analysis between Tunisia and Morocco," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1445-1456.
    3. Abdul Rahim Ridzuan & Noraina Mazuin Sapuan & Nur Hayati Abd Rahman & Halimahton Borhan & Azhana Othman, 2019. "The Impact of Corruption on Environmental Quality in the Developing Countries of ASEAN 3: The Application of the Bound Test," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(6), pages 469-478.
    4. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Shah, Syed Hasanat & Sato, João Ricardo, 2016. "Time-varying analysis of CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and economic growth nexus: Statistical experience in next 11 countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 33-48.
    5. Bartosz Jóźwik & Phouphet Kyophilavong & Aruna Kumar Dash & Antonina Viktoria Gavryshkiv, 2022. "Revisiting the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in South Asian Countries: The Role of Energy Consumption and Trade Openness," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-20, November.

    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. Anriquez, Gustavo, 2002. "Trade And The Environment: An Economic Literature Survey," Working Papers 28598, University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    2. Shu-Chen Chang & Meng-Hua Li, 2019. "Impacts of Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Development on Carbon Dioxide Emissions Across Different Population Regimes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(2), pages 583-607, February.
    3. Natalia Zugravu-Soilita, 2019. "Trade in Environmental Goods and Air Pollution: A Mediation Analysis to Estimate Total, Direct and Indirect Effects," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(3), pages 1125-1162, November.
    4. Per G. Fredriksson & Xenia Matschke, 2016. "Trade Liberalization and Environmental Taxation in Federal Systems," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 118(1), pages 150-167, January.
    5. Natalia Zugravu-Soilita, 2017. "Trade in Environmental Goods: Empirical Exploration of Direct and Indirect Effects on Pollution by Country’s Trade Status," Working Papers 2017.56, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    6. 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.
    7. Nepal, Rabindra & Jamasb, Tooraj & Tisdell, Clement Allan, 2017. "On environmental impacts of market-based reforms: Evidence from the European and Central Asian transition economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 44-52.
    8. Shu-Chen Chang, 2015. "Threshold effect of foreign direct investment on environmental degradation," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 14(1), pages 75-102, December.
    9. Ling, Chong Hui & Ahmed, Khalid & Muhamad, Rusnah binti & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2015. "Decomposing the trade-environment nexus for Malaysia: What do the technique, scale, composition and comparative advantage effect indicate?," MPRA Paper 67165, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Oct 2015.
    10. Auci, Sabrina & Becchetti, Leonardo, 2006. "The instability of the adjusted and unadjusted environmental Kuznets curves," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 282-298, November.
    11. Mansor H. Ibrahim & Siong Hook Law, 2016. "Institutional Quality and CO 2 Emission–Trade Relations: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 84(2), pages 323-340, June.
    12. Baek, Jungho & Cho, Yongsung & Koo, Won W., 2009. "The environmental consequences of globalization: A country-specific time-series analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(8-9), pages 2255-2264, June.
    13. Jie HE, 2005. "Economic Determinants for China’s Industrial SO2 Emission: Reduced vs. Structural form and the role of international trade," Working Papers 200505, CERDI.
    14. Octavio Fernández-Amador & Joseph F. Francois & Doris A. Oberdabernig & Patrick Tomberger, 2020. "Economic growth, sectoral structures, and environmental methane footprints," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(13), pages 1460-1475, March.
    15. Shu-Chen Chang & Hsiao-Fen Chang, 2020. "Same Trade Openness Yet Different Environmental Quality — But Why?," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(01), pages 1-17, April.
    16. Katrin Millock & Natalia Zugravu & Gérard Duchene, 2008. "The Factors Behind CO2 Emission Reduction in Transition Economies," Working Papers 2008.58, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    17. Mansor H. Ibrahim, 2018. "Trade–finance complementarity and carbon emission intensity: panel evidence from middle-income countries," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 489-500, December.
    18. Fernández-Amador, Octavio & Francois, Joseph F. & Oberdabernig, Doris A. & Tomberger, Patrick, 2017. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Economic Growth: An Assessment Based on Production and Consumption Emission Inventories," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 269-279.
    19. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Hye, Qazi Muhammad Adnan & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Leitão, Nuno Carlos, 2013. "Economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, international trade and CO2 emissions in Indonesia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 109-121.
    20. Ronald Davies & Helen Naughton, 2014. "Cooperation in environmental policy: a spatial approach," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(5), pages 923-954, October.

    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:spr:qualqt:v:49:y:2015:i:1:p:235-253. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.