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| Title: | Trade and the environmental Kuznets curve: is southern Africa a pollution haven? |
| Authors: | Nahman, Anton Antrobus, Geoff |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | South African Journal of Economics |
| Volume: | 73 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Pages: | 803-814 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Southern Africa United Kingdom United States |
| Subjects: | international trade industrial products SACU pollution |
| External link: | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2005.00055.x/pdf |
| Abstract: | One of the criticisms of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), which is often taken to imply that economic growth will automatically lead to environmental quality improvement, is based on the observation that many of a developed country's manufactured goods are produced abroad. This paper examines evidence on the extent to which the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) - which contends that pollution-intensive manufacturing relocates from developed to developing countries - holds for trade between the USA and the UK on the one hand, and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) region on the other. Applying Cole's (2004) method of observing trends in net exports as a proportion of consumption for dirty as opposed to clean industries, PHH consistent behaviour was found in the leather industry for the USA-SACU trade pair and in the wood and chemicals industries for the UK-SACU trade pair throughout the period considered (1981-1997 for USA-SACU and 1985-2002 for UK-SACU). These findings seem to suggest that SACU is a pollution haven for the USA in the leather industry and for the UK in the wood and chemicals industries. However, the finding that a similar trend exists in the two clean industries considered (clothing and textiles, and fabricated metal products) seems to cast doubt on the PHH. There may be a more general shift in manufacturing from the developed to the developing countries, rather than a shift only in pollution intensive industries as the PHH would seem to imply. Alternatively, the trade patterns may simply indicate specialization in line with Hecksher-Ohlin trade theory. On the evidence presented here, the pollution haven effect does not seem to be an important determinant of SACU's trade with the USA and the UK. In conclusion, Cole's method does not enable firm conclusions regarding the PHH, nor does it enable any conclusions to be drawn regarding the extent to which pollution haven effects contribute to EKC. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
