Is bioenergy trade good for the environment?

Jean-Marc Bourgeon (1, 2) , Hélène Ollivier (3, 4)

1 INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
2 X-DEP-ECO - Département d'Économie de l'École Polytechnique
3 ARE - Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
4 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne

We analyze the impacts of bioenergy trade on greenhouse gas emissions using a two-good, three-factor model. Bioenergy is an agricultural good used as a substitute for fossil fuels in industry. Governments tax domestic pollution without international coordination. We assume that northern countries have higher labor productivity than southern ones and that agriculture is less pollution intensive than industry (after taxation). We show that whereas southern countries impose a lower tax rate than northern ones, they do not necessary have a competitive advantage in industry, and that compared to autarky, trade liberalization either increases or decreases worldwide emissions depending on regional comparative advantages.

Mots clés: Bioenergy; Intermediate product; North-South trade; Global pollution; Bioenergy

Domaines: Economies et finances

Jean-Marc Bourgeon, Hélène Ollivier. Is bioenergy trade good for the environment?. European Economic Review, 2012, 56 (3), pp.411-421. ⟨10.1016/j.euroecorev.2011.11.002⟩. ⟨hal-00750733⟩