Market integration, environmental policy, and transboundry pollution from consumption

Abstract

Recent empirics report that transport cost reductions signicantly contribute to rapidly growing world trade. This paper develops a reciprocal market model of intra-industry trade with transboundary pollution from consumption to consider how market integration in the form of transport cost reductions aects the noncooperative choice of an environmental policy and the equilibrium welfare. I show that market integration can improve welfare locally, but that welfare under any non-prohibitive trade cost can not be higher than welfare under autarky. This possibility of trade losses exhibits a sharp contrast to the case of production-generated pollution.transboundary pollution, consumption-generated pollution, gains from trade; environmental policy