The Relationship between Environmental Efficiency and Manufacturing Firm's Growth
30 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2009
Date Written: December, 19 2008
Abstract
This paper investigates the empirical link between emission intensity and economic growth, using a very large data set of 61,219 Italian manufacturing firms over the period 2000-2004. As a measure of lagged environmental performance (efficiency) at firm level we exploit NAMEA sector for CO2, NOx, SOx data over 1990-1999. The paper tests the extent to which (past) environmental efficiency/intensity, which is driven by structural features and firm strategic actions, including responses to policies, influences firms growth. Our results show, first, a typical trade off generally appearing for the three core environmental emissions we analyse: lower environmentally efficiency in the recent past allows higher degrees of freedom to firms and relax the constraints for growth, at least in this short/medium term scenario. Nevertheless, the size of the estimated coefficients is not large. Trade off are significant for two emission indicators out of two, but quite negligible in terms of impacts, besides the case of CO2. For example, growth is reduced by far less than 0.1% in association to a 1% increase of environmental efficiency. Environmental efficiency does not seem a primary cost factor and constraint to growth if compared to other factors affecting firm targets and firm competitiveness. In addition, non-linearity seems to characterise the economic growth-environmental performance relationship. Signals of inverted U shape appears: this may be a signal that both firm strategies and recent policy efforts are affecting the dynamic relationship between environmental efficiency and economic productivity, turning it from an usual trade off to a possible joint complementary/co-dynamics, where bad environmental performances hamper firm growth and investments in greener technologies may be associated to positive economic performances of firms and sectors.
Keywords: Firm growth, Manufacturing, Emission intensity, Economic performance, Environmental performance
JEL Classification: C23, D21, O32, Q55
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Promoting Innovation in Developing Countries: A Conceptual Framework
-
Channels of Transmission of Environmental Policy to Economic Growth: A Survey of the Theory
-
By Massimiliano Mazzanti, Giulio Cainelli, ...
-
Drug Pricing and its Discontents: At Home and Abroad
By Roger Bate and Kathryn Boateng
-
By David Calef and Robert Goble
-
Environmental Innovations: Institutional Impacts on Co-Operations for Sustainable Development
By Helmut Karl, Antje Möller, ...
-
Private Ordering and Public Energy Innovation Policy
By Daniel R. Cahoy and Leland Glenna
-
International Technology Transfer for Climate Policy
By David Popp