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Green cities? Urbanization, trade and the environment

Author

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  • Borck, Rainald
  • Pflüger, Michael

Abstract

We study environmental pollution in an economic geography framework with two cities, where pollution arises from commuting within cities, goods transport between cities, production of manufacturing and agricultural goods, and residential energy use. We find that city size has an ambiguous effect on pollution levels. We also analyse how pollution changes with varying trade freeness, skilled wage income, and commuting costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Borck, Rainald & Pflüger, Michael, 2013. "Green cities? Urbanization, trade and the environment," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79763, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc13:79763
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Coroian Alexandra & Ivaşcu Larisa, 2025. "What are the Principles of Sustainability that Contribute to the Development of a Green City? Arguments, Approaches and Solutions of Current Research," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 19(1), pages 444-466.
    2. Borck, Rainald & Schrauth, Philipp, 2024. "Urban pollution: A global perspective," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Blaudin de Thé, Camille & Carantino, Benjamin & Lafourcade, Miren, 2021. "The carbon ‘carprint’ of urbanization: New evidence from French cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Tao Zhang & Lin Li, 2021. "Research on temporal and spatial variations in the degree of coupling coordination of tourism–urbanization–ecological environment: a case study of Heilongjiang, China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 8474-8491, June.
    5. Kurita, Kenichi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2023. "New economic geography model with natural capital and migration congestion effect," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 635-641.
    6. Borck, Rainald & Schrauth, Philipp, 2021. "Population density and urban air quality," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Borck, Rainald, 2014. "Will skyscrapers save the planet?," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100566, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Wu, JunJie & Segerson, Kathleen & Wang, Chunhua, 2023. "Is environmental regulation the answer to pollution problems in urbanizing economies?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Pflüger, Michael, 2021. "City size, pollution and emission policies," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    10. Borck, Rainald & Mulder, Peter, 2024. "Energy policies and pollution in two developing country cities: A quantitative model," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    11. Carozzi, Felipe & Roth, Sefi, 2023. "Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    12. Rainald Borck & Jan K. Brueckner, 2018. "Optimal Energy Taxation in Cities," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(2), pages 481-516.
    13. Lafourcade, Miren & Blaudin de Thé, Camille & Carantino, Benjamin, 2018. "The Carbon `Carprint' of Suburbanization: New Evidence from French Cities," CEPR Discussion Papers 13086, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Yiming Zhou, 2025. "Industrial agglomeration, firm heterogeneity, and environmental pollution," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 24(3), pages 393-418, September.
    15. Wu, JunJie & Segerson, Kathleen & Langpap, Christian, 2025. "What drives the long-term relationship between economic development and environmental quality? The role of spatial dispersion vs. agglomeration," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    16. Borck, Rainald, 2016. "Will skyscrapers save the planet? Building height limits and urban greenhouse gas emissions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 13-25.
    17. Rainald Borck & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2019. "Pollution and city size: can cities be too small?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(5), pages 995-1020.
    18. Adou, Niango Sika Antoine Brice, 2020. "Trade Openness and Employment, Implications on Urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 104317, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. P. Commendatore & I. Kubin & M. Sodini & I. Sushko, 2024. "The impact of pollution on the dynamics of industry location and residence choice," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 337(3), pages 739-768, June.
    20. Rainald Borck, 2019. "Bevölkerungsdichte, Stadtstruktur und Umweltverschmutzung [Population density, urban structure and air pollution]," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 5(1), pages 161-171, November.
    21. Michael Pflüger, 2020. "City Size, Pollution and Emission Policies," CESifo Working Paper Series 8448, CESifo.
    22. Yohanes Boni & Wa Ode Rachmasari Ariani & Hasddin Hasddin, 2023. "Study of Environmental Economic Performance According to Energy Use and CO2 Emissions, Air Quality, and Government Policies to Achieve SDGs in Baubau City," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(6), pages 452-462, November.
    23. Carozzi, Felipe & Roth, Sefi, 2023. "Dirty density: air quality and the density of American cities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117385, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation

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