International Competitiveness and Environmental Policies

About this book

Government policies to reduce environmental pollution and global warming are often criticized as damaging the economy, particularly by reducing international competitiveness. This book addresses the issue by examining many of the policies concerned, and their effects on competitiveness. It demonstrates that well-designed, market-oriented environmental policies may be expected to improve both domestic and international competitiveness. The authors dismiss the fear that environmental policies will damage competitiveness by approaching the issue from four different perspectives: the economic analysis of competitiveness; a geo-economic approach to trade and foreign investment between Europe, NAFTA, and Southeast Asia; studies of the effects of environmental policies on competitiveness; and the formal modelling of carbon taxation, international competitiveness and carbon leakage. The book also includes results from a global econometric model on the potential for carbon leakage, a detailed case study of German national policies, an examination of life cycle analysis and competitiveness; and an empirical study of green product development. This book will be of great interest to academics working in the field of environmental economics and researchers involved in environmental policy.

Contents

Part 1 Reviews of the literature: International competitiveness and globalization - frameworks for analysis, connections and critiques, Grahame Thompson; The impacts of environmental policy on competitiveness - theory and evidence, Paul Ekins, Stefan Speck; International competitiveness and carbon taxation, Terry Barker, Nick Johnstone, discussants: Rolf Iten, Najmah Rajah. Part 2 Macroeconomic simulations: Carbon leakage - an empirical assessment using a global econometric model, Clare Smith,. discussant, Paul Ekins; Effects of national, OECD-wide and world-wide energy taxes on the environment and on competitiveness, Carl C. Kopmans. Part 3 Economic analyses of countries and firms: Environmental regulation and competitiveness, Eirik Romstad; environmental policy and international competitiveness - the case of Germany, Rolf-Ulrich Sprenger, discussants: Norman Glass, Francois Leveque; Integrated product policy and industrial competitiveness, F. Berkhout, discussant: Sue Scott; 'Green' product development - factors in competition, Robin Roy, Mark Smith, Stephen Potter.

Customer Reviews

Biography

Terry Barker, Senior Research Officer and Jonathan Kohler, Research Officer, Univeristy of Cambridge, UK