کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
985599 | 1480678 | 2016 | 13 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
• Privatization cannot induce public and private firms to do more ER&D concurrently.
• A public firm may not undertake more ER&D than a private firm.
• If environmental damage is mild, environment can be restored after privatization.
• If environmental damage is high, environment may be worsened after privatization.
In this paper we explore whether privatization helps to catalyze a firm's environmental research and development (ER&D) and improve environmental quality. By defining ER&D as the effort undertaken by a firm to reduce its pollution per unit of output, we find in a duopoly framework that privatization cannot catalyze both public and private firms’ ER&D efforts simultaneously; it can increase one but decrease the other firm's investment, or it may even lower both firms’ ER&D investments. Moreover, when production causes severe environmental damage, or the imposition of environmental taxes poorly internalize the pollution externality, privatization may result in a poorer environment. For the sake of having a cleaner environment, policy-makers can impose higher environmental taxes on a highly polluting industry when it is being privatized.
Journal: Resource and Energy Economics - Volume 43, February 2016, Pages 1–13