An empirical cross-country Analysis of the Impact of International Trade on Environmental Quality

This paper seeks to assess the impact of international trade on a country\u27s environmental quality level, for a given level of GDP. Environmental quality is measures by six different types of pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, carbon dioxide, energy depletion and biochemical oxygen demand. This study uses cross-sectional data for the year 2000, and conducts an ordinary least squares estimation to study the relationship between trade and environmental quality. Similar to previous studies, mainly Frankel and Rose (2005) and Taylor (2009) my empirical analysis shows that trade does not have any detrimental impact on environmental quality for any of the six measures of pollution. This relationship is strongest for sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. I also find evidence for the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve for some measures of air pollution, but not for all