Trade liberalization and pollution havens
By: Josh Ederington, Arik Levinson, Jenny Minier.
Contributors: Levinson, Arik.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10585; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10585.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Free trade -- Environmental aspects -- United States.; Tariff -- United States.; Pollution -- Economic aspects -- United States.
Description: "U.S.  Presidential Executive Order 13141 commits the United States to a careful assessment and consideration of the environmental impacts of trade agreements.' The most direct mechanism through which trade liberalization would affect environmental quality in the U.S.  is through changes in the composition of industries.  Freer trade means greater specialization, increasing the concentration of polluting industries in some countries and decreasing it in others.  Indeed, in this paper we predict a substantial reduction in U.S.  pollution from 1978-94 due entirely to a shift in the composition of U.S.  manufacturing toward cleaner industries.  We then use annual industry-level data on imports to the U.S.  to examine whether this compositional shift can be traced to the significant trade liberalization that occurred over the same time period; we conclude that no such connection exists.  First, we find that a shift toward cleaner industries, similar to that observed in U.S.  manufacturing, has also occurred among U.S.  imports.  Second, we find no evidence that pollution-intensive industries have been disproportionately affected by the tariff changes over that time period"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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