Has trade openness reduced pollution in China?

Sandra Poncet (), Laura Hering and José De Sousa ()

No P132, Working Papers from FERDI

Abstract: We use recent detailed Chinese data on trade and pollution emissions to assess the environmental consequences of China’s integration into the world economy. We rely on a panel dataset covering 235 Chinese cities over the 2003-2012 period to see whether the environmental repercussions from trade openness depend on whether the latter concerns processing or ordinary activities. In line with our theoretical predictions, we find a negative and signicant effect of trade on emissions that is larger for processing trade and activities undertaken by foreign firms: the environmental gains from either ordinary trade activities or domestic firms are much lower, even though these today represent the main drivers of China’s export and import growth. This result suggests some caution regarding pollution prospects in the context of the declining role of processing trade.

JEL-codes: F10 F14 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-int, nep-res and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Has trade openness reduced pollution in China? (2015)
Working Paper: Has trade openness reduced pollution in China? (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fdi:wpaper:2258

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