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Documents de travail du Département des Affaires économiques de l'OCDE

Documents de travail du Département des affaires économiques de l’OCDE recouvrant toutes les activités de ce département : conjoncture économique, analyse politique et projections ; politique fiscale, dépenses publiques et fiscalité ; questions structurelles dont le vieillissement, la croissance et la productivité, la migration, l’environnement, le capital humain, le logement, les échanges et les investissements, les marchés de l’emploi, la réforme réglementaire, la concurrence, la santé et d’autres thèmes.

English, French

Foreign Direct Investment and The Pollution Haven Hypothesis

Evidence from Listed Firms

Business has often been arguing against the introduction of a carbon tax because it would induce a pollution haven effect – reducing the competitiveness of domestic production and shifting both production and emissions to countries where fossil fuels are cheaper. In this paper, we shed light on such claims by estimating the effect of energy prices on one of the possible channels of the pollution haven effect - foreign direct investment (FDI). Using data for listed firms in 23 OECD countries, we find that the effect of higher domestic energy prices on firms’ outward stock of FDI has been significant and positive, but small in magnitude. This effect seems driven by more permanent shocks to energy prices, in particular by those coming from more stringent upstream environmental policies.

English

Keywords: FDI, environmental policies, pollution haven, energy prices
JEL: Q41: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Energy / Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices; Q58: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Environmental Economics: Government Policy; F21: International Economics / International Factor Movements and International Business / International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
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