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Market Structure and the Environmental Implications of Trade Liberalization: R ussia's Accession to the W orld T rade O rganization
Author(s) -
Böhringer Christoph,
Rutherford Thomas F.,
Tarr David G.,
Turdyeva Natalia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
review of international economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.513
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1467-9396
pISSN - 0965-7576
DOI - 10.1111/roie.12197
Subject(s) - accession , economics , computable general equilibrium , liberalization , investment (military) , foreign direct investment , international trade , international economics , microeconomics , european union , market economy , politics , political science , law , macroeconomics
Abstract We investigate the environmental impacts of R ussia's W orld T rade O rganization ( WTO ) accession with a computable general equilibrium model incorporating imperfectly competitive firms, foreign direct investment and endogenous productivity. WTO accession increases CO 2 emissions through technique (−), composition (+) and scale (+) effects. We consider three complementary policies to limit CO 2 emissions: cap and trade, emission intensity standards and energy efficiency standards. With imperfectly competitive firms, gains from WTO accession result with any of these policies. If we assume perfectly competitive market structures, the negative environmental impacts of WTO accession are smaller and no net gains arise when environmental regulation involves energy intensity or efficiency standards.