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NAFTA and the Pollution Haven Hypothesis
Author(s) -
Ederington Josh
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2007.00218.x
Subject(s) - pollution haven hypothesis , haven , context (archaeology) , work (physics) , economics , environmental pollution , liberalization , pollution , international trade , free trade , developing country , natural resource economics , international economics , environmental regulation , business , environmental protection , economic growth , environmental science , geography , engineering , mechanical engineering , market economy , ecology , mathematics , archaeology , combinatorics , biology
The “Pollution Haven Hypothesis” is the prediction that trade liberalization will lead to the movement of polluting industries from high income/stringent environmental regulation countries to low income/lax environmental regulation countries. This prediction has led to concerns that NAFTA would be an environmental disaster for Mexico. The three articles included in this collection investigate the post‐NAFTA environmental performance of Mexico using both aggregate data on pollution emissions as well as firm‐level data on environmental abatement efforts. In this article, I summarize the contribution in the context of the trade/environmental literature and provide some suggestions for future work.