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Pollution and International Trade in Services

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Author Info
Arik Levinson

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Abstract

Two central topics in recent rounds of international trade negotiations have been environmental concerns, and services trade. While each is undoubtedly important, they are unrelated. In this paper I show that the services-environment link is small, for two reasons. First, services account for only a small fraction of overall pollution. For none of five major air pollutants does the service sector account for even four percent of total emissions; for three of the five services account for less than one percent. Second, those service industries that do pollute are the least likely to be traded internationally. Those services for which the U.S. collects and publishes international trade data -- presumably those services that are traded internationally -- are less polluting than services for which trade data do not exist -- presumably because the services are not traded. Even if we limit attention to the services that are traded across borders, the service industries most intensively traded are the ones that pollute the least. The bottom line is simple. International services trade bears little relation to the environment, because services in general contribute relatively little to overall pollution, and those industries that are traded internationally are among the least polluting.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14936.

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Date of creation: Apr 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14936

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounting

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Arik Levinson, 2007. "Technology, International Trade, and Pollution from U.S. Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 13616, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Gamper-Rabindran, Shanti, 2006. "NAFTA and the Environment: What Can the Data Tell Us?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(3), pages 605-33, April.
  3. Cole, Matthew A., 2004. "US environmental load displacement: examining consumption, regulations and the role of NAFTA," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 439-450, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Josh Ederington & Arik Levinson & Jenny Minier, 2004. "Trade Liberalization and Pollution Havens," NBER Working Papers 10585, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Hettige, Hemamala & Martin, Paul & Singh, Manjula & Wheeler,David R., 1995. "The industrial pollution projection system," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1431, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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