Kakali Mukhopadhyay (UNEP-NISD, Centre for Development and Environment Policy, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Joka, D.H. Road, Calcutta-7000104, India.)
Abstract
The impact of trade liberalization on the environment is a matter of debate. Two conflicting hypotheses have emerged from the debate. One, the pollution haven hypothesis, suggests that the developed countries impose tougher environmental policies than do the developing countries, which results in distortion of existing patterns of comparative advantage. Thus, the polluting industries shift operations from the developed to the developing countries; developing countries therefore become “pollution havens.” The second hypothesis, the factor endowment hypothesis, predicts that trade liberalization will result in trade patterns consistent with the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek theory of comparative advantage based on factor endowment differentials. Rich countries are well endowed with capital. Since capital-intensive goods are often also pollution-intensive, factor-endowment theories of international trade predict that rich countries specialize in polluting goods. Thus, the manifestation of the pollution haven hypothesis is in direct conflict with the factor
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.