Working Paper: NBER ID: w19533
Authors: Derek Kellenberg; Arik Levinson
Abstract: Many of the world's environmental problems cross international borders, and to address those problems approximately 1,000 different International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) are in operation today. Most evidence, however suggests that those IEAs are ineffectual, merely ratifying business-as-usual outcomes and doing little to improve the environment. But much of that empirical analysis faces two obstacles: (1) limited data from before the IEAs were enacted and thus an inability to make before-and-after comparisons; and (2) difficulty estimating the counterfactual outcomes - what would have happened absent the agreements. In this paper we test the effectiveness of one particular IEA - the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. In this special case we have data on international waste shipments from both before and after countries ratify the agreement, along with a unique approach to identifying the treaty's effect using annual bilateral waste shipments among countries before and after one of the trading partners signs the agreement. Despite the strengths of this approach, we find almost no evidence that the Convention has resulted in less waste being shipped among countries.
Keywords: International Environmental Agreements; Basel Convention; Hazardous Waste; Trade; Environmental Policy
JEL Codes: F13; F18; Q53; Q56
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Basel Convention (F18) | waste flows among countries (L99) |
| ratification of Basel Convention (F18) | hazardous waste exports (L99) |
| ban amendment (K16) | waste shipments to non-A7 countries (L99) |
| A7 countries signing the ban (F53) | waste exports to non-A7 countries (L99) |
| A7 countries not signing the ban (F53) | waste shipments to non-signatories (L99) |
| Basel Convention and ban amendment (F18) | reduction in hazardous waste shipments (L99) |