• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.511-544
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• 2007

He purpose of this paper is to estimate environmental efficiency and grasp the relationship between trade and environmental efficiency for 61 countries. Furthermore, we examine the environmental Kuznets relationship between environmental efficiency and GDP per capita and 'pollution haven hypothesis' as well. This paper implies that trade-related variables such as trade composition, the share of polluting exports and openness of a country are important determinants of environmental efficiency and especially, we confirmed existence of 'environmental Kuznets curve' but could not accept 'pollution haven hypothesis' in that 'foreign direct investment (FDI)' improves the environmental performance of pensioner nations.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.579-609
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• 2003

The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) as a channel of knowledge transfer and on the technological spillovers of know-how to other sectors in the economy is in the middle of this debate. Thus, foreign direct investment may have significant positive effects in reducing residual loadings and environmental pollution. There is an abiding concern expressed by many commentators that countries will lower their environmental standards to attract foreign investment, thereby creating so-called "pollution havens." Others argue that increasing foreign investment could promote "pollution halos" by introducing and transferring more efficient and less polluting technologies. The primary objective of this study is to show the dynamic relationship among pollution loadings, pollution abatement effort, and economic development with explicit consideration of FDI-related effects. This study found when foreign direct investment is evaluated in the model, the environmental pollution level is reduced and expenditure on pollution abatement is increased.