标题：Structural Dynamics of International Trade and Material Consumption: A Cross-National Study of the Ecological Footprints of Less-Developed Countries
出版社：American Sociological Association Section on Political Economy of the World System
摘要：Many social sc ientists argue that more-de veloped countries externalize the ir envi-ronme ntal costs through t he tapping of re sources of le ss-deve loped countries, which re duces le vels of consumpt ion in the latter while increasing forms of environmental deg-radation within their borders. However, these assertions lack systematic empirical support. This study offers a new conceptualization of the struct ure of international trade that may help to partly resolve this issue: weighted export f lows, which quantifie s the re lative extent to which exports are sent to highe r-consuming, more-developed countries. Our hypothesis is that less-developed countries with highe r leve ls of exports sent to more-develope d co unt rie s exhibit lower domestic levels of resource consumption, measured as ecological footprints. In a series of regression models of per capita ecological fo otprints for less-developed countries in 2000, evidence is found support ing the hypo thesis. The nega-tive effect of weighted export flows on the per capita footprints of nat ions is robust, ne t of the often c ited impacts of capital inte nsity, urbanization, domest ic inequality, human capital, and other export-related characteris-tics. Result s of this study provide empirical evidence of the environmental impacts of the struct ure of internat ional trade and out line a ne w met hodological approach to studying uneven ecological exchange
