Are Visegrad Countries Pollution Havens?

This book aims to contribute to the topical debate
over the impact of environmental regulation on
international competitiveness and the location of
polluting industries. Focusing on four Central
European transition countries (Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), this book employs
two simple methodological approaches to investigate
whether there are any indications of occurring
specialization of these economies in pollution-
intensive industries. First, the shares of dirty
industries within the Foreign Direct Investment
mixes in individual countries are examined. Second,
individual countries export specialization in
pollution-intensive industries is assessed by
applying the Revealed Comparative Advantage
approach. The outcomes of the analysis are discussed
in the context of the popular "pollution haven"
hypothesis. The book thus provides a useful insight
to the problems related to the finding of optimal
balance between environmental regulation and
international economic competitiveness and, as such,
can be of interest for decision makers,
environmental policy experts, as well as the
concerned public.

Autorentext
Michal Musil, M.Sc. studied Environmental Science and Policy at Central European University, Budapest. He currently works as a consultant and project manager in the field of Strategic Environmental Assessment at Integra Consulting Services Ltd., Prague.

Klappentext
This book aims to contribute to the topical debate over the impact of environmental regulation on international competitiveness and the location of polluting industries. Focusing on four Central European transition countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), this book employs two simple methodological approaches to investigate whether there are any indications of occurring specialization of these economies in pollution- intensive industries. First, the shares of dirty industries within the Foreign Direct Investment mixes in individual countries are examined. Second, individual countries' export specialization in pollution-intensive industries is assessed by applying the Revealed Comparative Advantage approach. The outcomes of the analysis are discussed in the context of the popular "pollution haven" hypothesis. The book thus provides a useful insight to the problems related to the finding of optimal balance between environmental regulation and international economic competitiveness and, as such, can be of interest for decision makers, environmental policy experts, as well as the concerned public.