Environment, trade, and economic growth: An analysis of national and global linkages.

摘要

The papers that comprise this dissertation analyze interactions of the natural environment with economic growth and international trade. These interconnections, introduced in Chapter One, have emerged as key issues in national and global public policy formulation.; Chapter Two presents a critical review of the literature on the impact of environmental regulations on international competitiveness and industrial location. The current debate on trade-environment interactions is studied by closely examining the viewpoints of the 'environmentalists' and 'free traders'. In addition, the challenges posed by environmental problems for the GATT/WTO are assessed.; A number of recent studies have hypothesized that pollution follows an inverted-U path with respect to economic growth. Following these studies, an econometric model is constructed in Chapter Three to analyze the so-called Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The analysis is new in two respects. First, while earlier studies have analyzed energy-related pollutants, the emphasis here is on energy consumption itself. Second, the impact of international trade in manufactured goods on pollutant generation is quantified. It is found that the incorporation of trade raises the turning point of the EKC. Further, export of manufactures by industrializing countries has been an important factor in generating the upward slope of the EKC, and imports by industrialized ones have contributed to the downward slope.; Chapter Four examines trends in global economic growth by employing different indexing methods for per capita income. All measures paint a poor picture of trends in world living standards.; The final chapter builds on the pioneering methodology of William Nordhaus to study the links between global economic growth and climate change. Nordhaus' conclusions from various runs of the Dynamic Integrated Climate Economy model are that policies for controlling CO{dollar}sb2{dollar} emissions need not be very strict. It is shown that his results depend crucially on parameters like the discount rate and the carbon intensity of production; by choosing different though equally plausible values for these parameters, the control rate for CO{dollar}sb2{dollar} rises substantially. Further, plausible modifications of the model structure relating to population growth, the cost of CO{dollar}sb2{dollar} reduction, secondary benefits, and intangible damages also result in significantly stricter emissions control policies.