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Firms'and States'Responses to Laxer Environmental Standards

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  • Cordella,Tito
  • Devarajan,Shantayanan

Abstract

On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced the United States'withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change. Despite this decision, American firms continued investing in low-carbon technologies and some states committed to tougher environmental standards. To understand this apparent paradox, this paper studies how a weakening of environmental standards affects the behavior of profit-maximizing firms. It finds that a relaxation of emission standards (i) may increase firms'incentives to adopt clean technologies, but not to pollute less; (ii) may negatively affect industry profitability if it is perceived as temporary; and, when this is the case, (iii) the unilateral adoption of stricter standards by large states may increase the expected profitability of every firm.

Suggested Citation

  • Cordella,Tito & Devarajan,Shantayanan, 2019. "Firms'and States'Responses to Laxer Environmental Standards," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8781, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8781
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Leonardo Bursztyn & David Hemous, 2012. "The Environment and Directed Technical Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 131-166, February.
    2. Perino, Grischa & Requate, Till, 2012. "Does more stringent environmental regulation induce or reduce technology adoption? When the rate of technology adoption is inverted U-shaped," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 456-467.
    3. Acemoglu, Daron & Rafey, Will, 2023. "Mirage on the horizon: Geoengineering and carbon taxation without commitment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    4. Cordella, Tito & Devarajan, Shantayanan, 2019. "Firms' and states’ responses to laxer environmental standards," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    5. Rodrik, Dani, 1991. "Policy uncertainty and private investment in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 229-242, October.
    6. Requate, Till, 2005. "Dynamic incentives by environmental policy instruments--a survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2-3), pages 175-195, August.
    7. Adam Jaffe & Richard Newell & Robert Stavins, 2002. "Environmental Policy and Technological Change," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 22(1), pages 41-70, June.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Yi Li & Lili Ding & Yongliang Yang, 2020. "Can the Introduction of an Environmental Target Assessment Policy Improve the TFP of Textile Enterprises? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Huai River Basin in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Cordella, Tito & Devarajan, Shantayanan, 2019. "Firms' and states’ responses to laxer environmental standards," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. Kong, Dongmin & Ma, Guangyuan & Qin, Ni, 2022. "The political economy of firm emissions: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Global Environment; Private Sector Economics; Climate Change and Health; Science of Climate Change; Climate Change and Environment; Energy and Mining; Energy Demand; Energy and Environment; Regulatory Regimes; Environmental Strategy; Environmental&Natural Resources Law; Judicial System Reform; Legal Reform; Legal Products; Social Policy; Legislation; Environmental Management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare

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