Are Foreign Investors Attracted to Weak Environmental Regulations?
Are Foreign Investors Attracted to Weak Environmental Regulations?

Author: Judith Myrle Dean

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13:

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Results from 2,886 manufacturing joint venture projects from 1993--96 show that EJVs from all source countries go into provinces with high concentrations of foreign investment, relatively abundant stocks of skilled workers, concentrations of potential local suppliers, special incentives, and less state ownership. Environmental stringency does affect location choice, but not as expected. Low environmental levies are a significant attraction only for joint ventures in highly-polluting industries with partners from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan (China). In contrast, joint ventures with partners from OECD sources are not attracted by low environmental levies, regardless of the pollution intensity of the industry. The authors discuss the likely role of technological differences in explaining these results"--Abstract.

Are Foreign Investors Attracted to Weak Environmental Regulations? Evaluating the Evidence from China
Are Foreign Investors Attracted to Weak Environmental Regulations? Evaluating the Evidence from China

Author: Judith M. Dean

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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At the center of the pollution haven debate is the claim that foreign investors from industrial countries are attracted to weak environment regulations in developing countries. Some recent location choice studies have found evidence of this attraction, but only for inward FDI in industrial countries. The few studies of inward FDI in developing countries have been hampered by weak measures of environmental stringency and by insufficient data to estimate variation in firm response by pollution intensity. This paper tests for pollution haven behavior by estimating the determinants of location choice for equity joint ventures (EJVs) in China. Beginning with a theoretical framework of firm production and abatement decisions, we derive and estimate a location choice model using data on a sample of EJV projects, Chinese effective levies on water pollution, and Chinese industrial pollution intensity. Results show EJVs in highly-polluting industries funded through Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are attracted by weak environmental standards. In contrast, EJVs funded from non-ethnically Chinese sources are not significantly attracted by weak standards, regardless of the pollution intensity of the industry. These findings are consistent with pollution haven behavior, but not by investors from high income countries and only in industries that are highly polluting. Further investigation into differences in technology between industrial and developing country investors might shed new light on this debate.

International Economic Integration and Domestic Performance
International Economic Integration and Domestic Performance

Author: Mary E Lovely

Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company

Published: 2017-02-27

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 9813141093

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International Economic Integration and Domestic Performance brings together the essays of Mary E Lovely focused on the relationship between international economic integration and domestic performance. It is a collection of sole-authored and co-authored papers that have been published in various scholarly journals over the last two decades. The first section considers the welfare effects and optimal design of retail sales taxes when consumers can avoid taxation by crossing jurisdictional boundaries. The second section highlights the role of scale economies in the design of industrial policies and as a determinant of firm location. The third section explores the influence of environmental policy on foreign investor's location decisions and the role of trade and technology on country's environmental regulation. The final section considers the determinants of wage differences, the attraction of low wages for foreign investors, and misallocations of labor in an emerging economy — China. The collection, taken as a whole, highlights the power of international factor mobility to determine domestic tax burdens, to influence welfare implications of domestic policy alternatives, and to influence the location of productive factors and their rewards.

Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment

Author: Beata K. Smarzynska Javorcik

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13:

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The "pollution haven" hypothesis states that multinational firms, particularly those in highly polluting industries, relocate to countries with weak environmental standards. Despite the plausibility and popularity of this hypothesis, Smarzynska and Wei find only weak evidence in its favor.

Moving to Greener Pastures?
Moving to Greener Pastures?

Author: Gunnar S. Eskeland

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13:

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This paper presents evidence on whether multinationals are flocking to developing country 'pollution havens'. Although we find some evidence that foreign investors locate in sectors with high levels of air pollution, the evidence is weak at best. We then examine whether foreign firms pollute less than their peers. We find that foreign plants are significantly more energy efficient and use cleaner types of energy. We conclude with an analysis of US outbound investment. Although the pattern of US foreign investment is skewed towards industries with high costs of pollution abatement, the results are not robust across specifications.

China's Growing Role in World Trade
China's Growing Role in World Trade

Author: Robert C. Feenstra

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2010-03-10

Total Pages: 603

ISBN-13: 0226239721

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In less than three decades, China has grown from playing a negligible role in international trade to being one of the world's largest exporters, a substantial importer of raw materials, intermediate outputs, and other goods, and both a recipient and source of foreign investment. Not surprisingly, China's economic dynamism has generated considerable attention and concern in the United States and beyond. While some analysts have warned of the potential pitfalls of China's rise—the loss of jobs, for example—others have highlighted the benefits of new market and investment opportunities for US firms. Bringing together an expert group of contributors, China's Growing Role in World Trade undertakes an empirical investigation of the effects of China's new status. The essays collected here provide detailed analyses of the microstructure of trade, the macroeconomic implications, sector-level issues, and foreign direct investment. This volume's careful examination of micro data in light of established economic theories clarifies a number of misconceptions, disproves some conventional wisdom, and documents data patterns that enhance our understanding of China's trade and what it may mean to the rest of the world.

New Voices in Investment
New Voices in Investment

Author: Maria Laura Gómez Mera

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2014-12-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781464803710

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This study analyzes the characteristics, motivations, strategies, and needs of FDI from emerging markets. It draws from a survey of investors and potential investors in Brazil, India, South Korea, and South Africa.

Routledge Handbook of Environment and Society in Asia
Routledge Handbook of Environment and Society in Asia

Author: Paul G. Harris

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-09-19

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 1317685717

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Nowhere is the connection between society and the environment more evident and potentially more harmful for the future of the world than in Asia. In recent decades, rapid development of Asian countries with very large populations has led to an unprecedented increase in environmental problems such as air and water pollution, solid and hazardous wastes, deforestation, depletion of natural resources and extinction of native species. This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the cultural, social and policy contexts of environmental change across East Asia. The team of international experts critically examine a wide range of environmental problems related to energy, climate change, air, land, water, fisheries, forests and wildlife. The editors conclude that, with nearly half of the human population of the planet, and several rapidly growing economies, most notably China, Asian societies will determine much of the future of human impacts on the regional and global environments. As climate change-related threats to society increase, the book strongly argues for increased environmental consciousness and action in Asian societies. This handbook is a very valuable companion for students, scholars, policy makers and researchers working on environmental issues in Asia.

Chinese Environmental Governance
Chinese Environmental Governance

Author: Bingqiang Ren

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-12-05

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 1137343680

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In this edited volume, leading environmental policy experts from China, USA, and Europe provide a contemporary view of Chinese environmental policy, analyzing current discussions among various actors and agencies. The book covers a wide range of topics including the gap between national policy goals and their local implementation, cultural and social factors shaping political behavior, legal and political systems affecting environmental policy creation and execution, new societal forces participating in environmental policymaking and governance, and local state strategies tasked with navigating a mix of political, legal, and societal forces. Featuring in-depth, empirically-grounded analyses with interdisciplinary approaches, the book is ideal reading for scholars interested in the complex nature of balancing Chinese environmental sustainability and economic growth.

Economics of the Environment
Economics of the Environment

Author: Robert N. Stavins

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 779

ISBN-13: 1788972066

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Economics of the Environment, Seventh Edition is a compendium of the best, most timely articles by a dream team of environmental economists, together with an original introductory chapter by the editor. Now in its seventh edition, Economics of the Environment serves as a valuable supplement to environmental economics text books and as a stand-alone reference book of key, up-to-date readings from the field. Edited by Robert N. Stavins, the book covers the core areas of environmental economics courses as taught around the world; and the included authors are the top scholars in the field. Overall, more than half of the chapters are new to this edition while the rest have remained seminal works.