The relationships between corruption and pollution on corruption regimes

Previous studies have focused mainly on the effect of corruption on pollution. The results of these studies show an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and pollution. In addition, some researchers have suggested that corruption plays an important role in determining pollution. This study proposes the hypothesis of a nonlinear long-run relationship between pollution and corruption. The goal of the study is to investigate the threshold cointegration effect of pollution on corruption using panel data for 62 countries over the period from 1997 to 2004. The results show that the effect of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on pollution is insignificant in low-corruption regimes. This implies that corruption does not slow down environmental pollution in countries with low corruption. The impact of the CPI on environmental pollution is also insignificant in high-corruption regimes. This result implies that corruption has no adverse impact on environmental pollution in countries with high corruption.Corruption, Pollution, Threshold, Error-Correction Model

Did International Trade Become Dirtier in Developing Countries? On the Composition Effect of International Trade on the Environment

Utilizing the world panel dataset for the pollution emission embedded in international trade for the period between 1988 and 2009, we investigated whether the composition of international trade of a country moved away from pollution-intensive industries as its income level rises. The empirical evidence suggests that the income levels of countries are negatively related to export pollution intensity, but we also find that income is negatively related to import pollution intensity. Thus, the composition effect of international trade on the environment is only consistent with the pollution haven hypothesis on the export side, which predicts that developing countries export more of dirtier industries and import more of cleaner industries after trade liberalization. Further investigation reveals that the lower-middle income countries experienced an increase in the pollution emission of exports and a decrease in the pollution emission of imports, whereas the countries in the lowest income group experienced increases in the pollution emission embodied in both exports and imports.Composition effect; Environment; International trade; Pollution emission; Pollution haven hypothesis.

Unravelling the Worldwide Pollution Haven Effect

This paper tackles the “pollution haven” argument by estimating the pollution content of imports (PCI). The PCI is then decomposed into three components: (i) a “deep” component (i.e. traditional variables unrelated to the environmental debate); (ii) a factor endowment component and (iii) a “pollution haven” component reflecting the impact of differences in environmental policies. The estimation is carried out for 1987 for an extensive data set covering 10 pollutants, 48 countries and 79 ISIC 4-digit sectors. Decompositions based on cross-section econometric estimates suggest a significant pollution haven effect which increases the PCI of the North because of stricter environmental regulations in the North. At the same time, the factor endowment effect lowers the PCI of the North, as the North is relatively well-endowed in capital and pollution-intensive activities are capital intensive. On a global scale, because the bulk of trade is intra-regional with a high North-North share, these effects are small relative to the “deep” determinants of the worldwide PCI. In sum, differences in factor endowments and environmental policies have only marginally affected the PCI of world trade at the end of the eighties.Trade and The Environment, Pollution Haven Effect, Factor Endowment Effect

Economic Growth, inequality and environment quality: An empirical analysis applied to developing and transition countries

This article aims at examining the relationship between social inequalities and pollution. On the one hand, it proposes a survey which shows that from a theoretical point of view, a decrease in inequality has an undetermined effect on environment. On the other hand, on the basis of these theoretical considerations, we propose an econometric analysis based on panel data for developing and transition countries during the period 1988-2003. More precisely, we examine the effect of income inequalities on the degree of local pollution (sulphur dioxide emissions and organic water pollution) by integrating Gini index in the formulation of environmental Kuznets curve. Then, two effects may be tested: (i) a direct effect of inequalities on pollution; (ii) an indirect effect by which the degree of inequality influence pollution by his negative impact on political freedoms.pollution; inequality; environmental Kuznets curve; panel data

Pollution Taxes and Location Decision under Free Entry Oligopoly

This paper examines the impact of a pollution tax as a pollution control device on the output and location decisions of undifferentiated oligopolistic firms with free entry. It shows that the optimum output and location of an oligopolistic firm is independent of a change in the pollution tax if the demand function is linear. Furthermore, an increase in the pollution tax will increase (decrease) output and move the plant location toward (away from) the CBD if the demand function is concave (convex). It also shows that a higher pollution tax will increase the pollution damage if the demand function is linear and the location effect dominates the demand effect. These results are significantly different from the conventional results based on the monopolistic location model. It indicates that the demand condition plays an important role in the determination of the impact of a pollution tax on the location decision of an oligopolistic firm and the pollution damage to the CBD residents.

Economic Growth, inequality and environment quality: An empirical analysis applied to developing and transition countries

This article aims at examining the relationship between social inequalities and pollution. On the one hand, it proposes a survey which shows that from a theoretical point of view, a decrease in inequality has an undetermined effect on environment. On the other hand, on the basis of these theoretical considerations, we propose an econometric analysis based on panel data for developing and transition countries during the period 1988-2003. More precisely, we examine the effect of income inequalities on the degree of local pollution (sulphur dioxide emissions and organic water pollution) by integrating Gini index in the formulation of environmental Kuznets curve. Then, two effects may be tested: (i) a direct effect of inequalities on pollution; (ii) an indirect effect by which the degree of inequality influence pollution by his negative impact on political freedoms.pollution; inequality; environmental Kuznets curve; panel data

Pollution, Shadow Economy and Corruption: Theory and Evidence

We study how the shadow economy affects pollution and how this effect depends on corruption levels in public administration. Production in the shadow economy allows firms to avoid environmental regulation policies; a large informal sector may be accompanied by higher pollution levels. Our theoretical model predicts that controlling the levels of corruption can limit the effect of the shadow economy on pollution. We use panel data covering the period from 1999–2005 from more than 100 countries to test this theoretical prediction. Our estimates confirm that the relationship between the shadow economy and the levels of pollution are dependent on the levels of corruption. Our results hold when we control for the effects of other determinants of pollution, time varying common shocks, country-fixed effects and various additional covariates.environmental pollution, shadow economy, corruption, panel data

Pigeons home faster through polluted air.

Air pollution, especially haze pollution, is creating health issues for both humans and other animals. However, remarkably little is known about how animals behaviourally respond to air pollution. We used multiple linear regression to analyse 415 pigeon races in the North China Plain, an area with considerable air pollution, and found that while the proportion of pigeons successfully homed was not influenced by air pollution, pigeons homed faster when the air was especially polluted. Our results may be explained by an enhanced homing motivation and possibly an enriched olfactory environment that facilitates homing. Our study provides a unique example of animals' response to haze pollution; future studies are needed to identify proposed mechanisms underlying this effect

Do Political Institutions protect the poor? Intra Countries Health Inequalities and Air Pollution in Developing Countries

This paper examines the link between health inequalities, air pollution and political institutions. In health economics literature, many studies have assessed the association between environmental degradation and health outcomes. This paper extends this literature by investigating how air pollution could explain health inequalities both between and within developing countries, and the role of political institutions in this relationship. Theoretically, we argue that differential in exposition to air pollution among income classes, prevention ability against health effect of environment degradation, capacity to respond to disease caused by pollutants and susceptibility of some groups to air pollution effect are sufficient to expect a positive link between air pollution and income related health inequality. Furthermore, in democratic countries, this heterogeneity in the health effect of pollution may be mitigated since good institutions favour universal health policy issues, information and advices about hygiene and health practices, and health infrastructures building. Our econometric results show that sulphur dioxide emission (SO2) and particulate matter (PM10) are in part responsible for the large disparities in infant and child mortalities between and within developing countries. In addition, we found that democratic institutions play the role of social protection by mitigating this effect for the poorest income classes and reducing the health inequality it provokes.health inequality;air pollution;political institutions;social protection

Traffic-related air pollution and obesity formation in children: a longitudinal, multilevel analysis.

BackgroundBiologically plausible mechanisms link traffic-related air pollution to metabolic disorders and potentially to obesity. Here we sought to determine whether traffic density and traffic-related air pollution were positively associated with growth in body mass index (BMI = kg/m2) in children aged 5-11 years.MethodsParticipants were drawn from a prospective cohort of children who lived in 13 communities across Southern California (N = 4550). Children were enrolled while attending kindergarten and first grade and followed for 4 years, with height and weight measured annually. Dispersion models were used to estimate exposure to traffic-related air pollution. Multilevel models were used to estimate and test traffic density and traffic pollution related to BMI growth. Data were collected between 2002-2010 and analyzed in 2011-12.ResultsTraffic pollution was positively associated with growth in BMI and was robust to adjustment for many confounders. The effect size in the adjusted model indicated about a 13.6% increase in annual BMI growth when comparing the lowest to the highest tenth percentile of air pollution exposure, which resulted in an increase of nearly 0.4 BMI units on attained BMI at age 10. Traffic density also had a positive association with BMI growth, but this effect was less robust in multivariate models.ConclusionsTraffic pollution was positively associated with growth in BMI in children aged 5-11 years. Traffic pollution may be controlled via emission restrictions; changes in land use that promote jobs-housing balance and use of public transit and hence reduce vehicle miles traveled; promotion of zero emissions vehicles; transit and car-sharing programs; or by limiting high pollution traffic, such as diesel trucks, from residential areas or places where children play outdoors, such as schools and parks. These measures may have beneficial effects in terms of reduced obesity formation in children