The Effectiveness of Environmental Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements
Trade liberalization can spur environmental degradation. Concerns over these adverse impacts have led to a debate over the need for environmental provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs), however the effectiveness of such provisions is unknow...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/980421616686312761/The-Effectiveness-of-Environmental-Provisions-in-Regional-Trade-Agreements http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35354 |
| Summary: | Trade liberalization can spur
environmental degradation. Concerns over these adverse
impacts have led to a debate over the need for environmental
provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs), however the
effectiveness of such provisions is unknown. This paper
provides new causal evidence that environmental provisions
are effective in limiting deforestation following the entry
into force of RTAs. It exploits high-resolution,
satellite-derived estimates of deforestation and identify
the content of RTAs using a new dataset with detailed
information on individual provisions. Accounting for the
potential endogeneity of environmental provisions in RTAs,
the paper finds that the inclusion of specific provisions
aimed at protecting forests and/or biodiversity entirely
offsets the net increases in forest loss observed in similar
RTAs without such provisions. The inclusion of these
provisions limits agricultural land expansion, but does not
completely offset increases in total agricultural
production. The effects are concentrated in tropical,
developing countries with greater biodiversity. |
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