Environmental economics

10 important questions on Environmental economics

What are the three effects of trade liberalization according to Copeland and Taylor, and which and why do these effect offset each other

Scale, composition, and technique.

scale and technique will offset each other.
changes in pollution mainly driven by changes in composition. As dirty firms will probably exit the market or continue their business in developing countries.
Scale: higher economic growth leads to higher income, leads to the technique effect that demands stricter environmental regulation, therefore the two effects offset each other.

What is the technique effect and did this effect influenced the decline of US emissions

Technique effect is that an increase in income leads to a higher demand for a cleaner environment. According to Levinson, 92% of the cleanup between 1990 and 2008 is due to the technique effect. Other examples are the stricter environmental guidelines that are more often seen in the developed world.

What is the relationship between productive firms and emissions, and how does trade liberalization influence this?

Productive firms are more profitable and therefore able to invest in abatement equipment. Therefore the productive firms are also the cleanest ones. These are the ones that are more likely to export. Trade liberalization will help them grow even further as dirty unproductive firms will experience more competition.
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What is the biggest critique on past decomposition theories?

Assumes all firms are identical.

What is the scale effect according to Coppeland and Taylor

The Expansion of economic activity causes an increase in total pollution.

What is the composition effect according to coppeland and taylor and what two factors influence his effect

Countries will specialize in sectors in which they have a comparative advantage.
this is due to 
differences in factor endowments. Labor (L) vs Capital (K). Free trade increases the pollution of the developing countries.
Differences in pollution policy.

What is the technique effect and is this effect seen in real life?

An increase in income will lead to a higher demand for a cleaner environment.
example, in the USA, the 1970s introduction EPA, and currently European citizens are urging for a cleaner environment.

What is the effect of international trade agreements on emissions?

Trade agreements have little effect on emissions due to the composition effect. Dirty industries now easily switch from richer (with more environmental regulation) to developing nations. (China example)

What is the difference between across-firm and within-firm adjustments in a trade liberating setting with fixed environmental regulations?

-Within a firm, adjustments are about, what the firm itself is gonna do under trade liberation. Think about investing in abating technologies, or offshore dirty activities to other countries.

-Across-firm is about how the overall market changes.  Low productivity and dirty firms can exit the market. A change in trade costs changes the profitability of many firms.

Why is it wrong to assume a industry wide emission intensity (Ei) is exogenous?

Due to the heterogeneity of firms. More likely it's endogenous to exports and imports
since this varies with type size and the number of firms.

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