Article
Do deep and comprehensive regional trade agreements help in reducing air pollution?
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
(2018)
Abstract
Environmental concerns are increasingly being incorporated into regional trade agreements (RTAs) to promote environmental quality and ultimately ensure compatibility between trade and environmental policies. This occurs in a context where air pollution and its effects on human health are of major concern. This paper investigates whether the proliferation and depth of environmental provisions (EPs) in RTAs are associated with lower concentration levels of particulate matter. We present an index of EPs in RTAs that measures the breadth and depth of the provisions and use it to estimate the effect of ratifying RTAs with different levels of EPs on changes in PM2.5 concentration levels in a panel of OECD countries over the 1999–2011 period. Using an instrumental variables strategy, we find that countries that have ratified RTAs with EPs show lower levels of PM2.5 concentrations when we control for scale …
Disciplines
Publication Date
2018
Citation Information
Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso and Walid Oueslati. "Do deep and comprehensive regional trade agreements help in reducing air pollution?" International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics Vol. 18 Iss. 6 (2018) p. 743 - 777 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/inma_martinez_zarzoso/51/