IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jproda/v44y2015i3p225-235.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate policy, environmental performance, and profits

Author

Listed:
  • Tommy Lundgren
  • Per-Olov Marklund

Abstract

In this study we investigate how firm level environmental performance (EP) affects firm level economic performance measured as profit efficiency (PE) in a stochastic profit frontier setting. Analyzing firms in Swedish manufacturing 1990–2004, results show that EP induced by environmental policy is not a determinant of PE, while voluntary or market driven EP seem to have a significant and positive effect on firm PE in most sectors. The evidence generally supports the idea that good EP is also good for business, as long as EP is not brought on by policy measures, in this case a CO 2 tax. Thus, the results provide no general support for the Porter hypothesis. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Tommy Lundgren & Per-Olov Marklund, 2015. "Climate policy, environmental performance, and profits," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 225-235, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:44:y:2015:i:3:p:225-235
    DOI: 10.1007/s11123-014-0396-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11123-014-0396-9
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11123-014-0396-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bergman, Mats A., 1997. "The restricted profit function and the application of the generalised Leontief and the translog functional forms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 249-254, May.
    2. Catherine M. Paul & Donald Siegel, 2006. "Corporate social responsibility and economic performance," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 207-211, December.
    3. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2010. "Climate Policy and Profit Efficiency," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2010/12, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    4. Madhu Khanna, 2001. "Non‐Mandatory Approaches to Environmental Protection," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 291-324, July.
    5. Brännlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2014. "Carbon intensity in production and the effects of climate policy—Evidence from Swedish industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 844-857.
    6. Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Pasurka, Carl Jr., 2010. "Toxic releases: An environmental performance index for coal-fired power plants," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 158-165, January.
    7. Brannlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy, 2009. "Environmental Policy Without Costs? A Review of the Porter Hypothesis," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 3(2), pages 75-117, September.
    8. Rolf Färe & Shawna Grosskopf & Carl Pasurka, 2006. "Social responsibility: U.S. power plants 1985–1998," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 259-267, December.
    9. Brännlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy, 2009. "Environmental policy without costs? A review of the Porter hypothesis," Umeå Economic Studies 766, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    10. Brännlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy, 2008. "Environmental policy and profitability - Evidence from Swedish industry," Umeå Economic Studies 750, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    11. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2010. "Climate Policy and Profit Efficiency," CERE Working Papers 2010:11, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics.
    12. Adam B. Jaffe & Karen Palmer, 1997. "Environmental Regulation And Innovation: A Panel Data Study," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 610-619, November.
    13. Michael Rauscher, 2006. "Voluntary Emission Reductions, Social Rewards, and Environmental Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 1838, CESifo.
    14. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    15. Marc Orlitzky & Diane L. Swanson, 2008. "Toward Integrative Corporate Citizenship," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-59470-8.
    16. Brännlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy, 2009. "Environmental policy without costs? A review of the Porter hypothesis," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2009/1, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    17. Fare, R. & Grosskopf, S. & Hernandez-Sancho, F., 2004. "Environmental performance: an index number approach," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 343-352, December.
    18. Yang, Chih-Hai & Tseng, Yu-Hsuan & Chen, Chiang-Ping, 2012. "Environmental regulations, induced R&D, and productivity: Evidence from Taiwan's manufacturing industries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 514-532.
    19. Tommy Lundgren, 2011. "A Microeconomic Model Of Corporate Social Responsibility," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 69-95, February.
    20. Runar Brännlund & Tommy Lundgren, 2010. "Environmental policy and profitability: evidence from Swedish industry," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 12(1), pages 59-78, June.
    21. Hamamoto, Mitsutsugu, 2006. "Environmental regulation and the productivity of Japanese manufacturing industries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 299-312, November.
    22. Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2001. "Estimation of Profit Functions When Profit Is Not Maximum," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(1), pages 1-19.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amjadi, Golnaz & Lundgren, Tommy & Persson, Lars, 2018. "The Rebound Effect in Swedish Heavy Industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 140-148.
    2. Bostian, Moriah & Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Lundgren, Tommy, 2016. "Environmental investment and firm performance: A network approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 243-255.
    3. Mario La Torre & Sabrina Leo & Ida Claudia Panetta, 2021. "Banks and environmental, social and governance drivers: Follow the market or the authorities?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1620-1634, November.
    4. Raymond Markey & Joseph McIvor & Martin O’Brien & Chris F Wright, 2021. "Triggering business responses to climate policy in Australia," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 46(2), pages 248-271, May.
    5. Huang, Youxing & Xu, Qi & Zhao, Yanping, 2021. "Short-run pain, long-run gain: Desulfurization investment and productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    6. Bashir, Muhammad Farhan & MA, Benjiang & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Shahzad, Umer & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Unveiling the heterogeneous impacts of environmental taxes on energy consumption and energy intensity: Empirical evidence from OECD countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2012. "Environmental Performance and Profits," CERE Working Papers 2012:8, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics.
    2. Bostian, Moriah & Färe, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Lundgren, Tommy, 2016. "Environmental investment and firm performance: A network approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 243-255.
    3. Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov & Samakovlis, Eva & Zhou, Wenchao, 2013. "Carbon Prices and Incentives for Technological Development," CERE Working Papers 2013:4, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics.
    4. Anabel Zárate-Marco & Jaime Vallés-Giménez, 2015. "Environmental tax and productivity in a decentralized context: new findings on the Porter hypothesis," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 313-339, October.
    5. Brännlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2014. "Carbon intensity in production and the effects of climate policy—Evidence from Swedish industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 844-857.
    6. Jana Stoever & John P. Weche, 2018. "Environmental Regulation and Sustainable Competitiveness: Evaluating the Role of Firm-Level Green Investments in the Context of the Porter Hypothesis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 70(2), pages 429-455, June.
    7. Nikos Chatzistamoulou & George Diagourtas & Kostas Kounetas, 2017. "Do pollution abatement expenditures lead to higher productivity growth? Evidence from Greek manufacturing industries," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 19(1), pages 15-34, January.
    8. Huang, Jingchang & Zhao, Jing & Cao, June, 2021. "Environmental regulation and corporate R&D investment—evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 154-174.
    9. Thomas Broberg & Per-Olov Marklund & Eva Samakovlis & Henrik Hammar, 2013. "Testing the Porter hypothesis: the effects of environmental investments on efficiency in Swedish industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 43-56, August.
    10. Xie, Rong-hui & Yuan, Yi-jun & Huang, Jing-jing, 2017. "Different Types of Environmental Regulations and Heterogeneous Influence on “Green” Productivity: Evidence from China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 104-112.
    11. Erik Hille & Patrick Möbius, 2019. "Environmental Policy, Innovation, and Productivity Growth: Controlling the Effects of Regulation and Endogeneity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1315-1355, August.
    12. Johan Brolund & Robert Lundmark, 2017. "Effect of Environmental Regulation Stringency on the Pulp and Paper Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Petra Andries & Ute Stephan, 2019. "Environmental Innovation and Firm Performance: How Firm Size and Motives Matter," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, June.
    14. Jaraite, Jurate & Kažukauskas, Andrius & Lundgren, Tommy, 2012. "Determinants of Environmental Expenditure and Investment: Evidence from Sweden," CERE Working Papers 2012:7, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics.
    15. Yang, Chih-Hai & Tseng, Yu-Hsuan & Chen, Chiang-Ping, 2012. "Environmental regulations, induced R&D, and productivity: Evidence from Taiwan's manufacturing industries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 514-532.
    16. Thanh Tam Nguyen-Huu & Minh Nguyen-Khac & Quoc Tran-Nam, 2017. "The role of environmental regulations and innovation in TFP convergence: Evidence from manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series 092, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Jin, Chenfei & Tsai, Fu-Sheng & Gu, Qiuyang & Wu, Bao, 2022. "Does the porter hypothesis work well in the emission trading schema pilot? Exploring moderating effects of institutional settings," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    18. Thanh Tam Nguyen-Huu & Minh Nguyen-Khac & Quoc Tran-Nam, 2017. "The role of environmental regulations and innovation in TFP convergence: Evidence from manufacturing SMEs in Vietnam," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-92, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Montalbano, P. & Nenci, S., 2019. "Energy efficiency, productivity and exporting: Firm-level evidence in Latin America," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 97-110.
    20. Earnhart, Dietrich & Germeshausen, Robert & von Graevenitz, Kathrine, 2022. "Effects of information-based regulation on financial outcomes: Evidence from the European Union's public emission registry," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-015, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    CO 2 tax; Environmental performance index; Profit technical efficiency; Stochastic frontier analysis; The Porter hypothesis; D20; H23;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:44:y:2015:i:3:p:225-235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.