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The effects of energy costs on firm re-location decisions

Author

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  • Lucia Lavric

    (Department of Economics, Duke University)

  • Nick Hanley

    (School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews)

Abstract

Energy costs are partly driven by environmental policy choices. In this paper, the effects of variations in energy costs – as measured by end-user electricity prices – on firm relocation decisions are investigated. Using a discrete choice model a nd a data base which has not previously been exploited to study this problem, we investigate the effects of variations in energy costs both for a sub-set of re-locating European firms in terms of which country they move to; and then for a larger set of firms in terms of the decision to re-locate or not in response to higher energy prices. We find that energy costs play a significant role in determining relocation destinations, and that this effect is asymmetric between firms moving into and out of a country , and between high energy intensity and low energy intensity sectors. The findings of the paper have implications for the Pollution Havens Hypothesis, since they show the extent to which the effects of climate policy on domestic energy costs can be expected to impact on firm relocation decisions both into and out of a country.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia Lavric & Nick Hanley, 2014. "The effects of energy costs on firm re-location decisions," Discussion Papers in Environment and Development Economics 2014-02, University of St. Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:sss:wpaper:2014-02
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    Cited by:

    1. Aurélien Saussay & Misato Sato, 2018. "The Impacts of Energy Prices on Industrial Foreign Investment Location: Evidence from Global Firm Level Data," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03475473, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm re-location; energy costs; Pollution Havens Hypothesis; climate policy; carbonleakage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects

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