International environmental outsourcing

Matthew A. Cole, Robert J R Elliott*, Toshihiro Okubo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)
111 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of firms shifting stages of their production processes overseas. In this paper we investigate whether firms outsource the dirtier stages of production to minimise domestic environmental regulation costs—a process broadly consistent with the pollution haven hypothesis. We develop a theoretical model of international environmental outsourcing that focuses on the roles played by firm size and productivity, transport costs and environmental regulations. We test the model’s predictions using a firm-level dataset for Japan and do find evidence of an ‘environmental outsourcing’ effect.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)639-664
Number of pages26
JournalReview of World Economics
Volume150
Issue number4
Early online date1 Jun 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2014

Keywords

  • Environmental regulations
  • Trade
  • Outsourcing
  • Firm level
  • F18
  • F23
  • L51
  • L60
  • Q56
  • R3

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'International environmental outsourcing'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this