Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Environmental Regulation in Latin America: Economic Internationalization and Political Institutions

本文考察了环境管制对面向国际的企业和面向国内的企业是否会产生不同的边际成本。关于全球化和环境监管之间的关系，两种解释模型产生了相互矛盾的预期。一种假设两者之间存在积极的关系，另一种则提出了一种负面的预测，即“竞相垫底”。使用跨行业、跨国家的研究设计对这些模型的假设进行检验，以确定一个行业的国际经济联系与该行业的监管严格程度之间的关系。该项目还探讨了相对的体制因素，包括政府和政党纪律的分歧，在激励政治家追求环境保护的公共利益或保护特定利益集团免受环境监管负担方面的作用。将从四个拉丁美洲国家的九个行业以及这些国家的环境决策机构收集数据。这项研究将通过提供关于各行业环境监管严格性的经验数据，并通过系统地测试经济国际化和监管力度之间的关系，为关于全球化和国内监管的辩论做出贡献。更广泛地说，该项目不仅可以为研究发展中国家的环境标准提供信息，还可以为其他社会法规和经济政策提供信息。

This dissertation investigates whether environmental regulation entails different marginal costs for internationally-oriented firms than for domestically-oriented firms. Two explanatory models generate competing expectations about the relationship between globalization and environmental regulation. One posits a positive relationship between the two, and the other offers a negative prediction of a "race to the bottom." Hypotheses from these models are tested using an across-industry, cross-national research design to determine the relation of an industry's international economic ties to the degree of regulatory stringency for that industry. This project also explores the role of comparative institutional factors, including divided government and party discipline, in shaping incentives for politicians to either pursue the public good of environmental protection or shelter particular interest groups from the burden of environmental regulation Data will be collected from nine industries in four Latin American countries, as well as on the environmental policymaking institutions of those states. This research will contribute to the debate about globalization and domestic regulation by providing empirical data on environmental regulatory stringency across industries and by systematically testing the relationship between economic internationalization and regulatory strength. More broadly, this project may inform the study not only of environmental standards in developing countries, but of other social regulation and economic policies as well.