International Trade and Transboundary Pollution

该项目分析国际贸易协定和机构如何改善环境质量和环境政策。在北美自由贸易协定的背景下，该项目探讨了如何改善水质和公共卫生沿着美国-墨西哥边境通过贸易激励措施和环境政策手段。这种分析也可适用于世界各国分担贸易和跨界污染的费用和利益的其他情况。该研究将确定管理边境水道水质的最佳战略：1）当贸易自由化和废物被用作生产贸易商品的投入时; 2）当存在贸易壁垒和需要其他政策工具时。该研究还将研究两国协调水污染控制与独立行动对水质和经济福利的影响。研究计划的第一步是开发一个经济模型，分析替代环境政策的影响，以及替代贸易政策的相应影响。一个动态博弈框架将被用来模拟各国在一段时间内做出相互影响的决定。该模型有助于描述污染和经济活动随时间的变化，无论是独立或合作的污染控制和贸易的行动。第二步是根据公众健康和环境影响，制定污染成本和减少污染成本的经验性措施，通过将水污染水平与公众健康和环境影响以及生产联系起来，就有可能探讨不同的贸易模式和体制如何加强或破坏环境。第三步是模拟合作和不合作两种情景下的替代环境和贸易政策对国际竞争力、环境污染负荷以及两国农产品消费者和生产者的影响。研究的目标是得出对多国和国家控制污染的政策战略有用的解决方案。将使用来自格兰德河流域的成本值、水质措施、公共健康损害、贸易流量和污染减排系统的数据。有待制定的分析框架可转用于其他环境和政策。该研究是在动态和空间背景下推进贸易与环境实证研究的重要一步。

This project analyzes how international trade agreements and institutions can improve environmental quality and environmental policy. Within the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the project explores how to improve water quality and public health along the U.S.-Mexico border through trade incentives and environmental policy instruments. The analysis may be applied to other settings throughout the world where countries share the costs and benefits of trade and transboundary pollution. The research will determine the optimal strategies for managing water quality in a border waterway 1) when trade is liberalized and waste is used as an input to produce a traded good and 2) when there are trade barriers and other policy instruments are needed. The research will also examine the effects on water quality and economic welfare of the two countries coordinating water pollution control versus acting independently. The first step of the research plan is to develop an economic model that analyzes the effects of alternative environmental policies, as well as the corresponding effects of alternative trade policies. A dynamic game framework will be used to model countries making decisions over time that affect one another. The model helps characterize changes in pollution and economic activities over time under either independent or cooperative action in pollution control and trade. The second step is to develop empirical measures of the costs of pollution, based on public health and environmental effects, and of the costs of reducing it. By correlating water pollution levels to public health and environmental effects as well as production it is possible to explore how different trade patterns and institutions enhance or degrade the environment. The third step is to simulate the effects of alternative environmental and trade policies under the two scenarios of cooperation and noncooperation on international competitiveness, environmental pollution loads, and on consumers and producers of agricultural goods in both countries. The goal of the research is to derive solutions that are useful for multinational and national policy strategies to control pollution. Data from the Rio Grande watershed for values of costs, water quality measures, public health damages, trade flows, and pollution abatement systems will be used. The analytical framework to be developed is transferable to other settings and policies. The research is a significant step in advancing empirical study of trade and environment within a dynamic and spatial context.