Liberalization and greenhouse gases emissions in the EU-10
| Date | 04 October 2013 |
| Pages | 288-296 |
| Published date | 04 October 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-08-2013-0027 |
| Author | Feride Gonel,Tolga Aksoy,Baris Nevzat Vardar |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Environmental technology & innovation |
Liberalization and greenhouse
gases emissions in the EU-10
Feride Gonel
Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
Tolga Aksoy
Department of Economics, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, and
Baris Nevzat Vardar
Universite Paris 1 Panthe
´on-Sorbonne, Paris, France
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between liberalization and
greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). After their
memberships, most of the CEECs have already committed to reducing their GHGs emissions.
Although emissions have decreased on average, there is a substantial heterogeneity among the
countries. Within the liberalization and integration efforts, increasingly huge amount of fo reign direct
investment (FDI) has flown to the region. Therefore, the question is whether or not this increase in
foreign investment to CEECs is related to the polluting industries. The coincidence of increased FDI
and GHGs emission has led us to study the relationship between them.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper exploited cross-sectional and time series variation of
the data.
Findings – The paper found that the polluting FDI is p ositively associated with GHGs emissions
in CEECs.
Originality/value – Fewprevious studieshave taken into accountFDI and environmental performance
together, so the analysis represents a notable contribution to the pollution haven literature.
Keywords Industry, Sustainable environment, CEECs, Liberalization, Foreign direct investment,
Greenhouse gas emissions, Environment, EU
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Economic integration with European Union (EU) provides a significant contribution to
international trade and also to foreign direct investment (FDI) of Central and Eastern
European countries (CEECs), now we are calling them as new members of EU.
Particularly FDI has become a major channel of economic transformation of these
countries. According to many studies (Lankes and Venables, 1996; Hunya, 1997, 2000;
Borensztein et al., 1998; Brenton and Di Mauro, 1999; Resmini, 2000; Ryszard and
Prochniak, 2009; Varamani and K aarash, 2010) GDP g rowth, productivity growth,
structural change and profit rates were higher in these coun tries with the help of FDI
inflow. The ten new member countries (EU-10; Bulgaria, Czech Republic , Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), which joined the
EU can be characterized by the magnet of inward FDI over the past two decades;
almost all new members’ FDI inflows as a share of GDP have increased during this
period. Within the region, Hungary recorded the largest FDI inflows relative to GDP; in
1993 FDI inflows as a share of GDP in Hungary[1] increased from 5.97 to 6.88 percent
in 2011. For the Czech Republic the same figure increased from 1.67 to 2.38 percent and
for Poland it increased from 1.83 to 2.97 percent (Table I). These are the members of
Vizegrad countries. The FDI sectors of these countries which accounted for mo rethan
70 percent of total FDI inflows to EU-10, are mostly in traditional sectors, scale
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5945.htm
WorldJour nal of Science, Technology
and Sustainable Development
Vol. 10 No. 4, 2013
pp. 288-296
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
2042-5945
DOI 10.1108/W JSTSD-08-2013-0027
288
WJSTSD
10,4
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