TY  - JOUR
AU  - Antweiler,Werner
AU  - Copeland,Brian R.
AU  - Taylor,M. Scott
TI  - Is Free Trade Good for the Environment?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6707
PY  - 1998
Y2  - August 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6707
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6707.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Werner Antweiler
University of British Columbia
Sauder School of Business
2053 Main Mall
Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z2
E-Mail: werner.antweiler@ubc.ca

Brian Copeland
Department of Economics
The University of British Columbia
#997-1873 East Mall
Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z1 CANADA
E-Mail: copeland@econ.ubc.ca

M. Scott Taylor
IEE Canada Research Chair
Department of Economics
The University of Calgary
2500 University Drive, N.W.
Calgary, AB T2N 1N4
CANADA
Tel: 403/220-8912
Fax: 403/282-5262
E-Mail: mstaylor@ucalgary.ca
AB  - This paper sets out a theory of how openness to international goods markets affects pollution concentrations.  We develop a theoretical model to divide trade's impact on pollution into scale, technique, and composition effects and then examine this theory using data on sulfur dioxide concentrations when it alters the composition, and hence the pollution intensity, of national output.  Our estimates of the associated technique and scale efforts created by trade imply a net reduction in pollution from these sources.  Combining our estimates of scale, composition, and technique efforts yields a somewhat surprising conclusion: freer trade appears to be good for the environment.
ER  -