Environmental Economics and the International Economy (Economy & Environment Book 25)

Thirteen papers addressing current issues in international environmental economics. They analyze the relationship between trade liberalization and environmental policy; the impact of trade liberalization on environmental quality; investigate problems of commitment faced by regulating authorities; provide new insights into the Porter hypothesis; present empirical research related to international competitiveness and location of polluting plants; address international environmental agreements, with a special focus on income distribution and the political-economy dimension, tradable emission reductions, and the quantitative impact of trade liberalization and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on carbon leakage.The papers in this volume show that even after ten years of intense research both on trade and the environment, and on transfrontier pollution and international environmental agreements, research in this area still produces new, relevant, and thought-provoking ideas and results. This volume includes a selection of papers presented at the EURESCO Conference “The International Dimension of Environmental Policy” held in Kerkrade, The Netherlands, in October 2000. We would like to thank those who made this conference possible: the European Science Foundation (ESF), which provided financial and organizational support; the European Commission EURESCO Programme; the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), which sponsored the conference under the research project: “Environmental Policy, International Competitiveness and the Location Behavior of Firms”; and GLOBUS, Tilburg University. The European Science Foundation (ESF), the EURESCO Programme, NWO and GlOBUS cannot be held responsible for the contents and/or opinions expressed in this volume. Our gratitude also goes to the people who assisted us in editing this volume: the papers’ referees, the authors, our publisher Kluwer, and Ineke Lavrijssen and Evelyn Rogge for invaluable editorial help at different stages of this project. Laura Marsiliani W. Allen Wallis Institute of Political Economy, University of Rochester, USA and Department of Economics and Finance, University of Durham, United Kingdom; Michael Rauscher Institute of Economics, Rostock University, Germany; Cees Withagen Department of Economics and CentER, Tilburg University, The Netherlands and Department of Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [Marsiliani, L., Rauscher, M. and Withagen, C] (eds.), [Environmental Economics and the International Economy], vii. Thirteen papers addressing current issues in international environmental economics. They analyze the relationship between trade liberalization and environmental policy; the impact of trade liberalization on environmental quality; investigate problems of commitment faced by regulating authorities; provide new insights into the Porter hypothesis; present empirical research related to international competitiveness and location of polluting plants; address international environmental agreements, with a special focus on income distribution and the political-economy dimension, tradable emission reductions, and the quantitative impact of trade liberalization and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on carbon leakage. The papers in this volume show that even after ten years of intense research both on trade and the environment, and on transfrontier pollution and international environmental agreements, research in this area still produces new, relevant, and thought-provoking ideas and results

the 13 Papers Begin By Considering The Environmental Issue Pitting Regulation Against Competitiveness, Then Survey International Environmental Agreements. They Demonstrate That Even After A Decade Of Intense Research On Trade And The Environment, On Transfrontier Pollution, And On International Environmental Agreements, New Insights Are Possible; That Models With Imperfect Competition Continue To Be A Source Of Interesting And Sometimes Surprising Results; That The Empirical Analysis Of The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Trade And On Capital Investment Is Experiencing A Renaissance Based On New And Better Data And New And More Appropriate Statistical Methods; And That Questions Concerning Distribution, Once Considered Unfashionable, Are Back On The Agenda. There Is No Index. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, Or

Over the last half century the world trading system has been considerably liberalised.