期刊名称：Discussion Papers / Department of Economics, University of Essex
出版年度：2004
卷号：2004
出版社：University of Essex
摘要：The current paper addresses the relationship between trade and endogenous
pollution levels. The main focus is quite different from the previous
literature. The mechanism linking pollution and trade is that trade provides the
home government with a credible threat that helps motivate domestic firms to
adopt cleaner technologies. This credible threat comes from the fact that the
government has a greater incentive to protect a clean industry than to protect a
very polluting one. In that sense, the existence of trade helps reduce domestic
pollution compared to what would prevail in a situation of autarky. On the other
hand, a commitment to free trade would be counterproductive: it limits the
government's ability to credibly threaten its domestic firms. In fact we show
that any trade liberalisation hurts the welfare of the home country. In terms of
world welfare, moderate trade liberalisation is helpful but only as long as it
does no affect the technology choices of the firms.
