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Trade agreements and CO 2 emissions in Asian countries: accounting for institutional heterogeneity.
- Source :
-
Environmental science and pollution research international [Environ Sci Pollut Res Int] 2024 Feb; Vol. 31 (6), pp. 9197-9217. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 08. - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- This paper aims to measure the impact of environmental provisions in free-trade agreements on pollution levels in 40 Asian economies for the period 1990-2019. Following the failure of WTO negotiations, there has been a rapid proliferation of preferential trade agreements incorporating various types of environmental clauses. We exploit such changes to assess their influence on pollution emissions. We use a DOLS approach that considers the potential endogeneity of environmental clauses. Further, panel vector error correction models (VECM) are employed for examining the presence of a cointegration relationship among the variables studied. Overall, our findings indicate that these environmental clauses have heterogenous effects on CO <subscript>2</subscript> emissions. We do not find significant effects of environmental clauses on pollution. However, this result is driven by environmental provisions that are not legally enforceable. We do find a positive effect of environmental clauses with a higher level of legalism on the environmental quality. These results show that the inclusion of environmental provisions in trade agreements is not sufficient by itself. Such provisions should incorporate a legally enforceable framework to effectively address environmental concerns. These findings have significant policy implications for Asian countries.<br /> (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)
- Subjects :
- Asia
Policy
Environmental Pollution
Carbon Dioxide analysis
Economic Development
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1614-7499
- Volume :
- 31
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Environmental science and pollution research international
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 38191733
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31684-1