Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
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Carbon and International Trade Location: B133 Session Chair: France d'Agrain, Mines Paris - PSL | |
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Clean Production, Dirty Sourcing: How Embodied Emissions Alter the Environmental Footprint of Exporters 1: DIW Berlin & Technical University of Berlin, Germany; 2: University of Mannheim, University of Würzburg & DIW Berlin, Germany; 3: DIW Berlin, Germany; 4: University of Mannheim & DIW Berlin, Germany International trade allows firms to outsource emissions through global supply chains, raising the question of whether exporters – the firms driving globalization – are truly cleaner than domestic producers. We show they are not: once emissions embodied in sourced inputs are included, the conventional exporter’s environmental premium reverses, challenging the view that trade reallocates activity toward cleaner firms. Using administrative firm-level data and customs records for German manufacturers combined with fuel- and product-specific emission factors, we construct carbon footprints that include both direct production-related emissions and those embodied in domestic and international supply chains. Four stylized facts emerge: (i) embodied emissions account for more than two-thirds of firms’ total emis- sions; (ii) exporters’ production involves disproportionately more of such emissions, partic- ularly via international sourcing; (iii) exporters appear cleaner in production but dirtier in total; and (iv) at the intensive margin, export-demand increases lower production-related but not total emission intensity, consistent with substitution from energy toward interme- diate inputs. A heterogeneous-firm sourcing model rationalizes this empirical evidence by highlighting the joint role of importing and exporting on firms’ emissions footprints. Our findings highlight the importance to account for embodied emissions when evaluating the environmental consequences of trade liberalization and designing climate policy | |