Arbeitspapier

Are deep and comprehensive regional trade agreements helping to reduce air pollution?

This paper investigates whether membership in Regional Trade agreements (RTAs) with environmental provisions (EPs) affect relative and absolute levels of environmental quality and whether the inclusion of most comprehensive EPs is associated to higher environmental quality. In order to do so, the determinants of PM2.5 population weighted concentrations are estimated for a sample of OECD countries and OECD+BRIICS over the period 1990 to 2011. The usual controls for scale, composition and technique effects are added to the estimated model and the endogeneity of income and trade variables is addressed using instruments. The main results indicate that membership in RTAs with EPs is in general associated with higher environmental quality in absolute terms, whereas no significant results are found for RTAs without EPs. Moreover, the concentration in emissions of the pairs of countries that belong to an RTA with EPs tends to converge for the country sample.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: cege Discussion Papers ; No. 292

Classification
Wirtschaft
Trade and Environment
Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General
Energy and the Macroeconomy
Subject
regional trade agreements
environmental provisions
convergence
environmental regulations

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada
Oueslati, Walid
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
University of Göttingen, Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research (cege)
(where)
Göttingen
(when)
2016

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada
  • Oueslati, Walid
  • University of Göttingen, Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research (cege)

Time of origin

  • 2016

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