OECD Economics Department Working Papers

ISSN: 
1815-1973 (online)
DOI: 
10.1787/18151973
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Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.

The views expressed in these papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.

 

Do environmental policies affect global value chains?

A new perspective on the pollution haven hypothesis You or your institution have access to this content

English
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Author(s):
Tomasz Koźluk1, Christina Timiliotis
Author Affiliations
  • 1: OECD, France

10 Mar 2016
Bibliographic information
No.:
1282
Pages:
64
DOI: 
10.1787/5jm2hh7nf3wd-en

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Increasing international fragmentation of production has reinforced fears that industrial activity may flee to countries with laxer environmental policies – in line with the so-called Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH). If PHH effects are strong, domestic responses to environmental challenges may prove ineffective or meet strong resistance. Using a gravity model of bilateral trade in manufacturing industries for selected OECD and BRIICS countries over 1990s-2000s, this paper studies how exports are related to national environmental policies. Environmental policies are not found to be a major driver of international trade patterns, but have some significant effects on specialisation. More stringent domestic policies have no significant effect on overall trade in manufactured goods, but are linked to a comparative disadvantage in "dirty" industries, and a corresponding advantage in "cleaner" industries. The effects are stronger for the domestic component of exports than for gross exports, yet notably smaller than the effects of e.g. trade liberalisation.
Keywords:
comparative advantage, trade, environmental policy stringency, global value chains, competitiveness, Pollution Haven Hypothesis
JEL Classification:
  • F14: International Economics / Trade / Empirical Studies of Trade
  • F18: International Economics / Trade / Trade and 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
  • Q58: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Government Policy
 
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