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Pollution Abatement and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States

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Abstract

The passage of environmental legislation was accompanied by concerns about its potential detrimental effect on productivity. We assume inputs can be assigned to either abatement activities or good output production. This allows us to specify regulated and unregulated production frontiers to determine the association between pollution abatement and productivity growth. We then employ our “assigned input” model to determine the association between productivity and abatement activities for manufacturing industries in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.

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Correspondence to Carl A. Pasurka Jr..

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Earlier versions of this study were presented at the 1994 American Economic Association meetings (Boston) and the 2005 Western Economic Association meetings (San Francisco). All views expressed in this study are the authors’ and do not reflect the opinions of the Consumer Product Safety Commission or the U.S. EPA.

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Aiken, D.V., Färe, R., Grosskopf, S. et al. Pollution Abatement and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. Environ Resource Econ 44, 11–28 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-008-9256-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-008-9256-2

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