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Agglomeration Effects in Foreign Direct Investment and the Pollution Haven Hypothesis

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  • Ulrich Wagner

    ()

  • Christopher Timmins

Abstract

Does environmental regulation impair international competitiveness of pollution-intensive industries to the extent that they relocate to countries with less stringent regulation, turning those countries into "pollution havens"? We test this hypothesis using panel data on outward foreign direct investment (FDI) flows of various industries in the German manufacturing sector and account for several econometric issues that have been ignored in previous studies. Most importantly, we demonstrate that externalities associated with FDI agglomeration can bias estimates away from finding a pollution haven effect if omitted from the analysis. We include the stock of inward FDI as a proxy for agglomeration and employ a GMM estimator to control for endogenous, time-varying determinants of FDI flows. Furthermore, we propose a difference estimator based on the least polluting industry to break the possible correlation between environmental regulatory stringency and unobservable attributes of FDI recipients in the cross-section. When accounting for these issues we find robust evidence of a pollution haven effect for the chemical industry.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists in its journal Environmental and Resource Economics.

Volume (Year): 43 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 (June)
Pages: 231-256

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Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:43:y:2009:i:2:p:231-256

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Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=100263

Related research

Keywords: Agglomeration effects; Congestion effects; Environmental regulation; Foreign direct investment; German manufacturing; Panel data; Pollution havens; F18; F23; Q52;

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References

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  1. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and the Environment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 7-71, March.
  2. Wolfgang Keller & Arik Levinson, 2002. "Pollution Abatement Costs and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows to U.S. States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(4), pages 691-703, November.
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  7. Arik Levinson & M. Scott Taylor, 2004. "Unmasking the Pollution Haven Effect," NBER Working Papers 10629, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Robert J. R. Elliott & Kenichi Shimamoto, 2008. "Are ASEAN Countries Havens for Japanese Pollution-Intensive Industry?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 236-254, 02.
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  10. Head, Charles Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2002. "Market Potential and the Location of Japanese Investment in the European Union," CEPR Discussion Papers 3455, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  11. de Melo, Jaime & Grether, Jean-Marie, 2003. "Globalization and Dirty Industries: Do Pollution Havens Matter?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3932, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  12. Matthew A. Cole & Robert J. R. Elliott & Per G. Fredriksson, 2006. "Endogenous Pollution Havens: Does FDI Influence Environmental Regulations?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 108(1), pages 157-178, 03.
  13. Josh Ederington, Arik Levinson & Jenny Minier, 2003. "Footlose and Pollution Free," Working Papers gueconwpa~03-03-04, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
  14. Daniel Millimet & John List, 2004. "The Case of the Missing Pollution Haven Hypothesis," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 239-262, 08.
  15. repec:clg:wpaper:2008-02 is not listed on IDEAS
  16. Adam B. Jaffe et al., 1995. "Environmental Regulation and the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 132-163, March.
  17. Claudia M. Buch & Jörn Kleinert & Alexander Lipponer & Farid Toubal, 2005. "Determinants and effects of foreign direct investment: evidence from German firm-level data," Economic Policy, CEPR & CES & MSH, vol. 20(41), pages 52-110, 01.
  18. Kolstad, Charles D. & Xing, Yuqing, 1998. "Do Lax Environmental Regulations Attract Foreign Investment?," University of California at Santa Barbara, Economics Working Paper Series qt3268z4rx, Department of Economics, UC Santa Barbara.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. John Feddersen, 2012. "Why we can't confirm the pollution haven hypothesis: A model of carbon leakage with agglomeration," Economics Series Working Papers 613, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  2. Fernando Broner & Paula Bustos & Vasco Carvalho, 2011. "Sources of comparative advantage in polluting industries (with appendix)," Economics Working Papers 1331, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Mar 2013.
  3. Cole, Matthew A. & Elliott, Robert J.R. & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2010. "Trade, environmental regulations and industrial mobility: An industry-level study of Japan," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1995-2002, August.
  4. Broner, Fernando A & Bustos, Paula & Carvalho, Vasco M, 2012. "Sources of Comparative Advantage in Polluting Industries," CEPR Discussion Papers 9111, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  5. Edward Manderson & Richard Kneller, 2012. "Environmental Regulations, Outward FDI and Heterogeneous Firms: Are Countries Used as Pollution Havens?," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 51(3), pages 317-352, March.
  6. José-Antonio Monteiro & Madina Kukenova, 2008. "Does Lax Environmental Regulation Attract FDI When Accounting For "Third-Country" Effects?," IRENE Working Papers 08-01, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
  7. Steven Poelhekke & Rick Van der Ploeg, 2012. "Green Havens and Pollution Havens," CESifo Working Paper Series 3841, CESifo Group Munich.
  8. Baomin Dong & Jiong Gong & Xin Zhao, 2012. "FDI and environmental regulation: pollution haven or a race to the top?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 216-237, April.
  9. Giulio Cainelli & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Sandro Montresor, 2011. "Environmental innovations, local networks and internationalization," Working Papers 201101, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
  10. Sunghoon Chung, 2012. "Environmental Regulation and the Pattern of Outward FDI: An Empirical Assessment of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis," Departmental Working Papers 1203, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics.
  11. Chakraborty, Debashis & Mukherjee, Sacchidananda, 2010. "Relationship between Trade, Investment and Environment: A Review of Issues," MPRA Paper 23333, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  12. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Valeria Costantini & Susanna Mancinelli & Massimilano Corradini, 2011. "Environmental and Innovation Performance in a Dynamic Impure Public Good Framework," Working Papers 201117, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.

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