Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth?
The "pollution haven" hypothesis refers to the possibility that multinational firms, particularly those engaged in highly polluting activities, relocate to countries with weaker environmental standards. Despite the plausibility and popula...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/09/1614728/pollution-havens-foreign-direct-investment-dirty-secret-or-popular-myth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19555 |
| id |
okr-10986-19555 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
okr-10986-195552021-04-23T14:03:43Z Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth? Smarzynska, Beata K. Wei, Shang-Jin ABATEMENT ABATEMENT CAPITAL ABATEMENT COSTS AIR POLLUTION AIR QUALITY BACTERIA BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND CARBON CARBON DIOXIDE CHEMICAL POLLUTION COAL COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE CONSTRUCTION CORPORATE TAXES DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC ANALYSIS EFFLUENT EMISSION EMISSION STANDARDS EMISSIONS EMISSIONS LEVELS EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE EMPIRICAL STUDIES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS EXPENDITURES GAS GREASE IMPORTS INCOME LABOR COSTS LAKES LEGISLATION MPC OIL OXYGEN PASTURES POLITICAL ECONOMY POLLUTANT POLLUTION POLLUTION ABATEMENT POLLUTION CONTROL POLLUTION CONTROL LAWS POLLUTION INTENSITY PROPERTY RIGHTS SULFUR TAX RATES TOXIC SUBSTANCES TOXICITY TOXICS TRANSBOUNDARY EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS TREATIES WASTE WATER POLLUTANT WATER POLLUTANTS MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS CORRUPTION IN POLITICS STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES INVESTMENT PROJECTS FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS POLLUTION INTENSITY INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AIR QUALITY WATER QUALITY POLLUTION ABATEMENT MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES The "pollution haven" hypothesis refers to the possibility that multinational firms, particularly those engaged in highly polluting activities, relocate to countries with weaker environmental standards. Despite the plausibility and popularity of this hypothesis, there is little evidence to support it. The authors identify four obstacles that may have impeded researchers' ability to find evidence in favor of the "pollution haven" hypothesis: 1) The possibility that some features of host countries, such as bureaucratic corruption, may deter inward foreign direct investment and also be positively correlated with lax environmental standards. Omitting this information in statistical analyses may produce misleading results. 2) The possibility that country- or industry-level data, typically used in the literature, may have masked the effect at the firm level. 3) Difficulties associated with measuring environmental standards of the host countries. 4) Difficulties associated with the measuring the pollution intensity of the multinational firms. The authors attempt to surmount these obstacles by explicitly taking into account corruption in host countries and using a firm-level data set on investment projects in 24 transition economies. With these improvements, the authors find some support for the "pollution haven" hypothesis, but evidence is still weak and does not survive numerous robustness checks. 2014-08-21T16:56:28Z 2014-08-21T16:56:28Z 2001-09 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/09/1614728/pollution-havens-foreign-direct-investment-dirty-secret-or-popular-myth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19555 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2673 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
ABATEMENT ABATEMENT CAPITAL ABATEMENT COSTS AIR POLLUTION AIR QUALITY BACTERIA BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND CARBON CARBON DIOXIDE CHEMICAL POLLUTION COAL COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE CONSTRUCTION CORPORATE TAXES DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC ANALYSIS EFFLUENT EMISSION EMISSION STANDARDS EMISSIONS EMISSIONS LEVELS EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE EMPIRICAL STUDIES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS EXPENDITURES GAS GREASE IMPORTS INCOME LABOR COSTS LAKES LEGISLATION MPC OIL OXYGEN PASTURES POLITICAL ECONOMY POLLUTANT POLLUTION POLLUTION ABATEMENT POLLUTION CONTROL POLLUTION CONTROL LAWS POLLUTION INTENSITY PROPERTY RIGHTS SULFUR TAX RATES TOXIC SUBSTANCES TOXICITY TOXICS TRANSBOUNDARY EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS TREATIES WASTE WATER POLLUTANT WATER POLLUTANTS MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS CORRUPTION IN POLITICS STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES INVESTMENT PROJECTS FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS POLLUTION INTENSITY INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AIR QUALITY WATER QUALITY POLLUTION ABATEMENT MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES |
| spellingShingle |
ABATEMENT ABATEMENT CAPITAL ABATEMENT COSTS AIR POLLUTION AIR QUALITY BACTERIA BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND CARBON CARBON DIOXIDE CHEMICAL POLLUTION COAL COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE CONSTRUCTION CORPORATE TAXES DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ECONOMIC ANALYSIS EFFLUENT EMISSION EMISSION STANDARDS EMISSIONS EMISSIONS LEVELS EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE EMPIRICAL STUDIES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS EXPENDITURES GAS GREASE IMPORTS INCOME LABOR COSTS LAKES LEGISLATION MPC OIL OXYGEN PASTURES POLITICAL ECONOMY POLLUTANT POLLUTION POLLUTION ABATEMENT POLLUTION CONTROL POLLUTION CONTROL LAWS POLLUTION INTENSITY PROPERTY RIGHTS SULFUR TAX RATES TOXIC SUBSTANCES TOXICITY TOXICS TRANSBOUNDARY EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS TREATIES WASTE WATER POLLUTANT WATER POLLUTANTS MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS CORRUPTION IN POLITICS STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES INVESTMENT PROJECTS FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS POLLUTION INTENSITY INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AIR QUALITY WATER QUALITY POLLUTION ABATEMENT MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES Smarzynska, Beata K. Wei, Shang-Jin Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth? |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2673 |
| description |
The "pollution haven"
hypothesis refers to the possibility that multinational
firms, particularly those engaged in highly polluting
activities, relocate to countries with weaker environmental
standards. Despite the plausibility and popularity of this
hypothesis, there is little evidence to support it. The
authors identify four obstacles that may have impeded
researchers' ability to find evidence in favor of the
"pollution haven" hypothesis: 1) The possibility
that some features of host countries, such as bureaucratic
corruption, may deter inward foreign direct investment and
also be positively correlated with lax environmental
standards. Omitting this information in statistical analyses
may produce misleading results. 2) The possibility that
country- or industry-level data, typically used in the
literature, may have masked the effect at the firm level. 3)
Difficulties associated with measuring environmental
standards of the host countries. 4) Difficulties associated
with the measuring the pollution intensity of the
multinational firms. The authors attempt to surmount these
obstacles by explicitly taking into account corruption in
host countries and using a firm-level data set on investment
projects in 24 transition economies. With these
improvements, the authors find some support for the
"pollution haven" hypothesis, but evidence is
still weak and does not survive numerous robustness checks. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Smarzynska, Beata K. Wei, Shang-Jin |
| author_facet |
Smarzynska, Beata K. Wei, Shang-Jin |
| author_sort |
Smarzynska, Beata K. |
| title |
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth? |
| title_short |
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth? |
| title_full |
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth? |
| title_fullStr |
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment : Dirty Secret or Popular Myth? |
| title_sort |
pollution havens and foreign direct investment : dirty secret or popular myth? |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/09/1614728/pollution-havens-foreign-direct-investment-dirty-secret-or-popular-myth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19555 |
| _version_ |
1764439988348387328 |