International Trade and Environmental Regulation

Download or read book International Trade and Environmental Regulation written by Xinpeng Xu and published by Nova Biomedical Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets out to examine one of the most important issues on trade and the environment namely, the trade effects of domestic environmental policy. The central question addressed is whether stringent domestic environmental policies reduce the international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive industries. This study is distinguished by two major innovations that go beyond the established literature: the examination of time-series evidence to explore the relationship between environmental regulations and trade patterns, and the introduction of technology factors, together with endowment factors, to explain the empirical evidence. To theoretically explore the dynamic linkage between environmental regulation, technological innovation and economic growth the author sets up an intertemporal dynamic general equilibrium model in which the more fundamental, dynamic determinant of economic growth is its capacity for technological innovation. The basic findings are that (1) changes in thestringency of environmental regulations do not have long-run growth effects; and (2) technological innovation is an important determinant of a country's long-run growth. The emphasis of this book is that the trade effects of domestic environmental policy can be better understood if one allows for a dynamic Ricardian technology factor in the conventional Heckscher-Ohlin framework. Innovation and subsequent increases in relative labour productivity, together with factor endowments, are important factors in determining the relationship between environmental regulation and international competitiveness. This result should help refocus the debate on the relationship between environmental regulationand competitiveness in international trade.