The Green Industry: An Examination of Environmental Products Manufacturing

Randy Becker and Ron Shadbegian

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: The "green industry" is often noted in discussions of the costs and benefits of environmental policy, and it has been characterized as a unique industry with substantial potential for employment growth, well-paying jobs, and export opportunities. In this paper, we examine the characteristics and recent economic performance of the green industry, using establishment-level data on environmental products manufacturers (EPMs) from the 1995 Survey of Environmental Products and Services, together with data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and various Census of Manufactures. Results suggest that there are some differences between EPMs and their non-EPM counterparts in the same industry, in terms of employment, employee compensation, exports, and productivity. However, we do not find any evidence that EPMs performed any better than otherwise similar plants, in terms of survival, employment growth, wage growth, and export growth. Our findings offer a more complex and nuanced portrayal of the green industry than is typical, and we suggest that this industry may not be as exceptional as is sometimes maintained.

Keywords: green industry; environmental products; employment; wages; exports; productivity; growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2008-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2008/CES-WP-08-34.pdf First version, 2008 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: The Green Industry: An Examination of Environmental Products Manufacturing (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:08-34

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