Unilateral environmental policy and offshoring
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Contributors
Abstract
This paper examines how offshoring shapes emissions leakage and global emissions in response to unilateral environmental policy. We use a general equilibrium offshoring model with heterogeneous firms, based on standard modeling assumptions, where firms allocate labor between production tasks and emissions abatement. We find that global emissions respond non-monotonically to a unilateral emissions tax increase: for small cross-country tax differentials, emissions fall; but as the difference widens, leakage exceeds 100%, raising global emissions due to a global technique effect. The cleanest domestic firms start offshoring and incumbent offshoring firms become dirtier under declining effective foreign taxes. We isolate the offshoring margin – one underexplored channel of leakage – and contrast our findings with comparable models of trade in final goods: the mode of globalization matters. Complementing the unilateral reform with a border carbon adjustment (BCA) prevents emissions leakage but may raise inequality between countries.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 104185 |
| Journal | Journal of International Economics |
| Volume | 159 |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 10 Nov 2025 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| unpaywall | 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104185 |
|---|---|
| Scopus | 105022827425 |
Keywords
Research priority areas of TU Dresden
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- BCA, Emissions leakage, Environmental policy, Heterogeneous firms, Income inequality, Offshoring