Environmental regulation and trade pattern:a case of China

作     者：Qi Jianhong Zheng Yingmei Zhao Yong 

作者机构：School of EconomicsShandong UniversityJinan 250100.P.R.China School of Economics Renmin Univesity of ChinaBeijing 100872.P.R.China 

出 版 物：《Ecological Economy》 (生态经济（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2007年第3卷第3期

页      面：234-242页

学科分类：02[经济学] 0201[经济学-理论经济学] 020106[经济学-人口、资源与环境经济学] 

主　　题：Environmental regulation Trade pattern Cointegration analysis Error correction model 

摘      要：As a growing number of countries, including both developed and developing countries, have in recent yearstaken environmental regulation at different levels, a question of great concern has been raised: can the regulation alterthe existing trade volume and trade pattern, and ultimately drive pollution-intensive industries to countries with low-levelregulations or even those without regulations at all? Starting from the three different propositions concerning therelationship between environmental regulation and trade pattern, this paper applies cointegration analysis and errorcorrection model to empirically testing the relationship between environmental regulation and trade in China during theperiod of 1985-2005. Our empirical results indicate that in the short run the collection of pollution discharge fees bearsa positive impact on the export share of clean products of total exports. Thus, higher pollution discharge fees raise theratio of clean products exports to total exports. This further indicates that more stringent environmental regulationpromotes the exports of clean products. In the long run pollution discharge fees are positively correlated with the exportshare of clean products but negatively associated with their import share. Such correlations imply that environmentalregulation tends to facilitate the international specialization in line with comparative advantages.