IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tin/wpaper/20010039.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Environmental Regulation and Competitiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Abay Mulatu

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Raymond J.G.M. Florax

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Cees A.A.M. Withagen

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Tilburg University)

Abstract

The potential relationship between domestic environmental regulation and internationalcompetitiveness has evoked various speculations. The common neoclassical train of thought is thatstrict environmental regulation is detrimental to the competitiveness of industry, and that itinduces phenomena such as ecological dumping, ecological capital flight, and regulatory 'chill' inenvironmental standards. A different view is that strict environmental regulation triggers industry'sinnovation potential, and subsequently increases its competitiveness. The impact of environmentalregulation on competitiveness has been analyzed in terms of international capital movements, newfirm formation, and international trade. This paper focuses on a statistically rigorous analysis ofinternational trade studies, using a technique that is known as meta-analysis. The paper presentsa statistically supported evaluation of the literature, in order to assess what the main conclusionsregarding the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness are when itcomes to studies on international trade flows. The synthesis of the literature is subsequently usedto present guidelines for future primary research in this area.

Suggested Citation

  • Abay Mulatu & Raymond J.G.M. Florax & Cees A.A.M. Withagen, 2001. "Environmental Regulation and Competitiveness," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 01-039/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20010039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/01039.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Greenstone, 1998. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Industrial Activity: Evidence from the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and the Census of Manufacturers," Working Papers 787, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    2. Xu, Xinpeng, 1999. "Do Stringent Environmental Regulations Reduce the International Competitiveness of Environmentally Sensitive Goods? A Global Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1215-1226, July.
    3. Terry Barker & Jonathan Köhler (ed.), 1998. "International Competitiveness and Environmental Policies," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1454.
    4. Low, P., 1992. "International Trade and the Environment," World Bank - Discussion Papers 159, World Bank.
    5. Ashenfelter, Orley & Harmon, Colm & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1999. "A review of estimates of the schooling/earnings relationship, with tests for publication bias," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 453-470, November.
    6. Adam B. Jaffe et al., 1995. "Environmental Regulation and the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 132-163, March.
    7. Orley Ashenfelter & Colm Harmon & Hessel Oosterbeek, 1999. "A Review of Estimates of the Schooling/Earnings Relationship, with Tests for Publication Bias," Working Papers 804, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    8. Hettige, Hemamala & Lucas, Robert E B & Wheeler, David, 1992. "The Toxic Intensity of Industrial Production: Global Patterns, Trends, and Trade Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 478-481, May.
    9. Michael Greenstone, 2002. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Industrial Activity: Evidence from the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1175-1219, December.
    10. Smith, V. Kerry & Kaoru, Yoshiaki, 1990. "What have we learned since hotelling's letter? : A meta-analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 277-281, March.
    11. Hedges, Larry V., 1997. "The promise of replication in labour economics," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 111-114, June.
    12. Rauscher, Michael, 1997. "International Trade, Factor Movements, and the Environment," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198290506.
    13. V. Kerry Smith & Yoshiaki Kaoru, 1990. "Signals or Noise? Explaining the Variation in Recreation Benefit Estimates," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 72(2), pages 419-433.
    14. Cees Van Beers & Jeroen C. J. M. Van Den Bergh, 1997. "An Empirical Multi‐Country Analysis of the Impact of Environmental Regulations on Foreign Trade Flows," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 29-46, February.
    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. Costantini, Valeria & Crespi, Francesco, 2008. "Environmental regulation and the export dynamics of energy technologies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 447-460, June.
    2. Horváthová, Eva, 2010. "Does environmental performance affect financial performance? A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 52-59, November.
    3. Fabio Iraldo & Francesco Testa & Vlasis Oikonomou & Michela Melis & Marco Frey & Eise Spijker, 2009. "A literature review on the links between environmental regulation and competitiveness," Working Papers 200904, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa, Istituto di Management.
    4. Thomas Roediger‐Schluga, 2003. "Some Micro‐Evidence on the “Porter Hypothesis” from Austrian VOC Emission Standards," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 359-379, August.
    5. Thomas Ziesemer & Peter Michaelis, 2008. "Strategic Environmental Policy and the Accumulation of Knowledge," Discussion Paper Series 301, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    6. Esteve Mora, F. & Muñoz De Bustillo Llorente, R., 2004. "Mitos y falacias populares en el debate acerca de los sistemas de pensiones/Myths and Fallacies in the Debate About the Future of Pension Systems," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 22, pages 289-316, Agosto.
    7. Daniel Millimet & John List, 2004. "The Case of the Missing Pollution Haven Hypothesis," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 239-262, August.
    8. Mark J. Koetse & Henri L.F. de Groot & Raymond J.G.M. Florax, 2006. "The Impact of Uncertainty on Investment: A Meta-Analysis," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-060/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Robert SOVA & Ion STANCU & Laurentiu FRATILA & Anamaria SOVA, 2011. "Corporate Social Responsibility and its Macroeconomic Implications," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 12(1), pages 172-183, March.

    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. Sebri, Maamar, 2015. "Use renewables to be cleaner: Meta-analysis of the renewable energy consumption–economic growth nexus," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 657-665.
    2. Maria Abreu & Henri L. F. de Groot & Raymond J. G. M. Florax, 2005. "A Meta‐Analysis of β‐Convergence: the Legendary 2%," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 389-420, July.
    3. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and the Environment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 7-71, March.
    4. Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2001. "Methodological pitfalls in meta-analysis: publication bias," Serie Research Memoranda 0028, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    5. Maria Abreu & Henri L.F. de Groot & Raymond J.G.M. Florax, 2005. "A Meta-Analysis of Beta-Convergence: The Legendary Two-Percent," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-001/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Zhang, Hongliang, 2013. "Pollution Haven Effect with Heterogeneous Firms," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150781, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Oltmer, Katrin & Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2001. "Impacts Of Agricultural Policy Reform On Land Prices: A Quantitative Analysis Of The Literature," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20507, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. Greenstone, Michael & Gayer, Ted, 2009. "Quasi-experimental and experimental approaches to environmental economics," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 21-44, January.
    9. Rosenberger, Randall S. & Stanley, Tom D., 2006. "Measurement, generalization, and publication: Sources of error in benefit transfers and their management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 372-378, December.
    10. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    11. Zinnia Mukherjee & Niloufer Sohrabji, 2022. "Environmental Regulation and Export Performance: Evidence from the USA," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 198-225, April.
    12. Raymond J.G.M. Florax & Henri L.F. de Groot & Ruud A. de Mooij, 2002. "Meta-analysis: A Tool for Upgrading Inputs of Macroeconomic Policy Models," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 02-041/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Arik Levinson, 2001. "An Industry-Adjusted Index of State Environmental Compliance Costs," NBER Chapters, in: Behavioral and Distributional Effects of Environmental Policy, pages 131-158, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Pizer, William A. & Kopp, Raymond, 2005. "Calculating the Costs of Environmental Regulation," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 25, pages 1307-1351, Elsevier.
    15. Haixiao Huang, Walter C. Labys, 2002. "Environment and trade: a review of issues and methods," International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1/2), pages 100-160.
    16. Rauscher, Michael, 2001. "International trade, foreign investment, and the environment," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 29, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    17. He, Jie, 2010. "What is the role of openness for China's aggregate industrial SO2 emission?: A structural analysis based on the Divisia decomposition method," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 868-886, February.
    18. Mark N. Harris & László Kónya & László Mátyás, 2000. "Modelling the Impact of Environmental Regulations on Bilateral Trade Flows: OECD 1990-96," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2000n11, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    19. Xiao Chen & Alan Woodland, 2013. "International trade and climate change," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(3), pages 381-413, June.
    20. Jasper M. Dalhuisen & Raymond J.G.M. Florax & Henri L.F.M. de Groot & Peter Nijkamp, 2001. "Price and Income Elasticities of Residential Water Demand: Why Empirical Estimates differ," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 01-057/3, Tinbergen Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    environmental policy; strictness; competitiveness; meta-analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
    • Q00 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:tin:wpaper:20010039. 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: Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tinbenl.html .

    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.