Offshoring, Trade and Environmental Policies: Effects of Transboundary Pollution

Abstract

This study develops a two-country model, Home and Foreign, with offshoring and environmental spillover. A final good producer in Home can produce (homogeneous) final goods using customized inputs produced by its partner-supplier in Foreign. The intermediate input price is determined by Nash bargaining, presenting a hold-up problem. Additionally, input production causes transboundary pollution. Home and Foreign governments can set trade taxes. Moreover, the Foreign government can set the environmental standard. This model demonstrates that, under no international policy agreement, both the environmental standard and the quantity of the intermediate input are lower than the first-best levels. This inefficiency persists even if both governments conclude an agreement.

Keywords: Offshoring, Intermediate input trade, Emission spillover, Environmental standard, Incomplete contract

JEL Classification: F12, F13, F18, L24, Q56