Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

Journal of Environmental Economics and 
Management
38, no. 3 (1999): 283-301.
26
Frankel, Jeffrey A., and Andrew K. Rose. "Is trade good or bad for the environment? 
Sorting out the causality." 
Review of Economics and Statistics
87, no. 1 (2005): 85-91.
27
Frankel, Jeffrey A. "Environmental Effects of International Trade." HKS Faculty 
Research Working Paper Series RWP09-006 (2009). 
28
Suri, Vivek, and Duane Chapman. "Economic growth, trade and energy: implications 
for the environmental Kuznets curve." 
Ecological Economics
25, no. 2 (1998): 195-208.
29
Stern, David I. "Progress on the environmental Kuznets curve?." 
Environment and 
Development Economics
3, no. 02 (1998): 173-196. 

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36 
Pollution haven hypothesis is connected to the criticism to the composition effect. 
It states that the differences of environmental regulations between countries lead the shift 
of pollution-intensive manufacturing from developed to developing countries.
30
Since 
Pethig modeled that the country with weak environmental policy would export polluting 
goods, many studies examined if pollution haven exists.
31
The results of these studies are 
not consistent. Some empirical studies found an evidence of pollution haven, while many 
other studies did not find any evidence or found counter evidence.
32
Pollution haven hypothesis infers race to the bottom theory, which refers to the 
downward pressure of the stringency of environmental regulations to attract foreign 
investments. On the other hand, there is a hypothesis of the opposite direction, which is 
called the race to the top. Regulatory competition tends to lead more stringent 
environmental regulations rather than weaker regulations. Vogel suggested that trade may 
generate upward pressure of regulations when countries’ export markets have stringent 
30 Cole, Matthew A. "Trade, the pollution haven hypothesis and the environmental 
Kuznets curve: examining the linkages." 
Ecological Economics
48, no. 1 (2004): 71-81.
31
Pethig, Rüdiger. "Pollution, welfare, and environmental policy in the theory of 
comparative advantage." 
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
2, no. 3 
(1976): 160-169.
32
Eskeland, Gunnar S., and Ann E. Harrison. "Moving to greener pastures? 
Multinationals and the pollution haven hypothesis." 
Journal of Development Economics
70, no. 1 (2003): 1-23.; Cole, Matthew A. "Trade, the pollution haven hypothesis and the 
environmental Kuznets curve: examining the linkages." Ecological economics 48, no. 1 
(2004): 71-81.; Millimet, Daniel L., and Jayjit Roy. "Empirical tests of the pollution 
haven hypothesis when environmental regulation is endogenous." Journal of Applied 
Econometrics (2015).; 
Dong, Baomin, Jiong Gong, and Xin Zhao. "FDI and 
environmental regulation: pollution haven or a race to the top?." 
Journal of Regulatory 
Economics
41, no. 2 (2012): 216-237.; Kearsley, Aaron, and Mary Riddel. "A further 
inquiry into the Pollution Haven Hypothesis and the Environmental Kuznets Curve." 
Ecological Economics
69, no. 4 (2010): 905-919.

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37 
regulations.
33
Empirical studies show little evidence of the race to the bottom.
34
Rather, 
their result supported the pressure for the race to the top.
35
Previous literature on trade and the environment do not agree on any specific 
direction of effect of international trade on the environment. Trade can improve the 
environment by driving technology innovation and the change of industrial structure, and 
by ratcheting up the stringency of environmental regulations. On the other hand, trade 
can harm the environment by increasing the scale of pollution, transferring polluting 
industry from developed to developing countries, and driving downward pressure of 
environmental regulations.
The rise of renewable energy suggests the positive side of international trade. 
Increasing international trade of renewable energy products have generated technology 
innovations, which enabled dramatic cost-down of some products. Moreover, increasing 
number of countries adopting renewable energy policies support the race to the top rather 
than the race to the bottom. However, the other side of renewable energy trade, the rise of 
protectionist policies, needs different perspective since it is not well understood by trade 
and the environment literature.
33
Vogel, David.