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Pollution havens and foreign direct investment : dirty secret or popular myth?

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Author Info
Smarzynska, Beata K.

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Abstract

The"pollution haven"hypothesis refers to the possibility that multinational firms, particularly those engaged in highly polluting activities, relocate to countries with weaker environmental standards. Despite the plausibility and popularity of this hypothesis, there is little evidence to support it. The authors identify four obstacles that may have impeded researchers'ability to find evidence in favor of the"pollution haven"hypothesis: 1) The possibility that some features of host countries, such as bureaucratic corruption, may deter inward foreign direct investment and also be positively correlated with lax environmental standards. Omitting this information in statistical analyses may produce misleading results. 2) The possibility that country- or industry-level data, typically used in the literature, may have masked the effect at the firm level. 3) Difficulties associated with measuring environmental standards of the host countries. 4) Difficulties associated with the measuring the pollution intensity of the multinational firms. The authors attempt to surmount these obstacles by explicitly taking into account corruption in host countries and using a firm-level data set on investment projects in 24 transition economies. With these improvements, the authors find some support for the"pollution haven"hypothesis, but evidence is still weak and does not survive numerous robustness checks.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 2673.

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Date of creation: 30 Sep 2001
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2673

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Keywords: Sanitation and Sewerage; Environmental Economics&Policies; Water and Industry; Pollution Management&Control; Decentralization; Environmental Economics&Policies; Water and Industry; TF030632-DANISH CTF - FY05 (DAC PART COUNTRIES GNP PER CAPITA BELOW USD 2; 500/AL; Sanitation and Sewerage; Pollution Management&Control;

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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. Daniel Kaufmann & Shang-Jin Wei, 1999. "Does "Grease Money" Speed Up the Wheels of Commerce?," NBER Working Papers 7093, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Damania, Richard & Fredriksson, Per G. & List, John A., 2003. "Trade liberalization, corruption, and environmental policy formation: theory and evidence," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 490-512, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Shang-Jin Wei, 1997. "Why is Corruption So Much More Taxing Than Tax? Arbitrariness Kills," NBER Working Papers 6255, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Dean, Judith M., 1992. "Trade and the environment : a survey of the literature," Policy Research Working Paper Series 966, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  5. Hans-Peter Lankes & A. J. Venables, 1996. "Foreign direct investment in economic transition: the changing pattern of investments," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 4(2), pages 331-347, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Eskeland, Gunnar S. & Harrison, Ann E., 1997. "Moving to greener pastures : multinationals and the pollution-haven hypothesis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1744, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "Local Corruption and Global Capital Flows," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 31(2000-2), pages 303-354. [Downloadable!]
  8. Randy Becker & Vernon Henderson, 2000. "Effects of Air Quality Regulations on Polluting Industries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(2), pages 379-421, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 1-11, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Beata K. Smarzynska & Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "Corruption and Composition of Foreign Direct Investment: Firm-Level Evidence," NBER Working Papers 7969, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Levinson, Arik, 1996. "Environmental regulations and manufacturers' location choices: Evidence from the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 5-29, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Smarzynska, Beata K. & Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "Corruption and the composition of foreign direct investment - firm-level evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2360, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  13. Smarzynska Javorcik, Beata, 1999. "Composition of Foreign Direct Investment and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Transition Economies," CEPR Discussion Papers 2228, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Letchumanan, Raman & Kodama, Fumio, 2000. "Reconciling the conflict between the 'pollution-haven' hypothesis and an emerging trajectory of international technology transfer," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 59-79, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Kenneth A. Froot, 1993. "Foreign Direct Investment," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number froo93-1.
  16. Charles Kolstad & Yuqing Xing, 1998. "Do Lax Environmental Regulations Attract Foreign Investment?," University of California at Santa Barbara, Economics Working Paper Series wp28-98pt1, Department of Economics, UC Santa Barbara. [Downloadable!]
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