Transboundary Pollution and International Migration

We analyze the welfare effects of international migration in the presence of transboundary pollution. We use a simplified Copeland and Taylor (1999) model, where the (developed) home country's pollution abatement technology is superior to that of the (less developed) foreign country. If there i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of international economics 2006-05, Vol.14 (2), p.248-260
Main Author: Kondoh, Kenji
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Correlation analysis
Economic models
Globalization
International economic relations
International migration
Migrant workers
Pollution
Production
Studies
Technology
Welfare
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Summary:We analyze the welfare effects of international migration in the presence of transboundary pollution. We use a simplified Copeland and Taylor (1999) model, where the (developed) home country's pollution abatement technology is superior to that of the (less developed) foreign country. If there is no trade, workers will migrate from the foreign country to the home country. The foreign country gains from migration, but whether the home country gains or not depends on the abatement‐technology gap and the magnitude of the coefficient of transboundary pollution. World welfare will increase under migration. If there is free trade in goods, international migration occurs when the home country specializes in the production of the environmentally sensitive good. In this case, migration will result in increased production of the manufactured good and increase the level of world pollution.
ISSN:0965-7576
1467-9396
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9396.2006.00573.x