Exporting Pollution: Where Do Multinational Firms Emit CO₂? / Itzhak Ben-David, Stefanie Kleimeier, Michael Viehs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ben-David, Itzhak.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kleimeier, Stefanie.

Viehs, Michael.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25063.

NBER working paper series no. w25063

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Exporting Pollution

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

Despite widespread awareness of the detrimental impact of CO₂ pollution on the world climate, countries vary widely in how they design and enforce environmental laws. Using novel microdata about multinational firms' CO₂ emissions across countries, we document that firms headquartered in countries with strict environmental policies perform their polluting activities abroad in countries with relatively weaker policies. These effects are largely driven by tightened environmental policies in home countries that incentivize firms to pollute abroad rather than lenient foreign policies that attract those firms. Although firms headquartered in countries with strict domestic environmental policies are more likely to export pollution to foreign countries, they nevertheless emit less overall CO₂ globally.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2018.