Do Environmental Regulations Cost Jobs? An Industry-Level Analysis of the UK

Matthew A. Cole, University of Birmingham, UK
Robert J.R. Elliott, University of Birmingham, UK

Abstract

This paper revisits the 'jobs versus the environment' debate and provides the first analysis for a country other than the US. We firstly examine the impact of environmental regulations on employment assuming such regulations are exogenous. However, for the first time in a study of this nature, we then allow environmental regulation costs and employment to be endogenously determined. Environmental regulation costs are not found to have a statistically significant effect on employment whether such costs are treated as being exogenous or endogenous. We therefore find no evidence of a trade-off between jobs and the environment.