ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE: A MULTICOUNTRY EMPIRICAL STUDY

Author

Nneamaka I. Ilechukwu, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

6-1-2021

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Lahiri, Sajal

Abstract

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OFNneamaka Ilechukwu, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics, presented on May 1, 2021, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE: A MULTICOUNTRY EMPIRICAL STUDYMAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Sajal LahiriThis dissertation seeks to explore in detail the interactions between the environment and international trade. We provide estimates on the impact of the environment on bilateral trade, country use of clean energy to reduce global pollution and its impact on bilateral trade, and trade’s impact, split into the scale, technique, and composition effect on the environment.Chapter 1 studies the interactions between the environment and international trade in a bilateral framework, looking to estimate the effect of environment pollution on bilateral trade between 152 countries using advancements in the gravity model over the period 1964-2014, whilst controlling for a variety of fixed effects. Chapter 2 investigates the share of country’s renewable energy consumption in total final energy and GDP per capita for 152 countries over the period 1990-2014. The analysis will start by estimating country and continent premiums on the use of renewable energy, then make distinctions between clean and dirty sources of renewable energy by decomposing renewable energy into clean and dirty sources, verify the existence of an Environment Kuznets curve, and finally estimate a gravity equation of bilateral trade and the role of renewable energy consumption on international trade. Chapter 3 revisits the controversial debate on the role of international trade on environmental pollution and the calls for environmental sustainability using panel dataset for 152 countries over the period 1970-2019, conditioning trade openness on country characteristics.