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Optimal Volume of Environmentally Damaging Trade
Author(s) -
Kohn Robert E.,
Capen Peter D.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
scottish journal of political economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.4
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1467-9485
pISSN - 0036-9292
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9485.00219
Subject(s) - economics , commercialization , environmental quality , trade barrier , production (economics) , natural resource economics , quality (philosophy) , international trade , international economics , natural resource , business , microeconomics , ecology , biology , philosophy , epistemology , marketing
It is controversial whether international trade enhances or degrades the global environment. In this model, environmental quality, as measured by biodiversity, is damaged by the consequences of trade, which include the commercialization of natural habitat, pollution and bioinvasion. However, there are also benefits of trade. When both countries internalize the external costs of production and trade, measures of environmental quality may be higher or lower as a consequence of trade, but there is always, unambiguously, less trade the more environmentally damaging it is.