Abstract
We show that traditional measures of productivity change that ignore the unproductive nature of pollution abatement capital within the production process are likely to underestimate the true productivity gains that most manufacturing industries are able to generate in any given year. While the average bias of traditional measures is not large in absolute terms,the bias can be substantial for industries with relatively large pollution abatement capital expenditures. We also find that environmental regulation has a non-trivial adverse effect on productivity change,lowering productivity growth by roughly 0.3% across all industries,and by more than 1% for some industries.
Article Footnote
We would like to thank the discussant, Ralph Winkler, for helpful comments and suggestions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Acemoglu, D. and F. Zilibotti (2001), Productivity DifferencesQuarterly Journal of Economics116 (2), 563–606.
Bernard, A.B. and C.I. Jones (1996), Comparing Apples to Oranges: Productivity Convergence and Measurement Across Industries and CountriesAmerican Economic Review86 (5), 1216–1238.
Berteisman, E.J. and W. Gray (1996)NBER Manufacturing Productivity DatabaseNBER Technical Working Paper No. 205.
Conrad, K. and C.J. Morrison (1989), The Impact of Pollution Abatement Investment on Productivity Change: An Empirical Comparison of the U.S., Germany, and CanadaSouthern Economic Journal55 (3), 684–698.
Hulten, C.R. (1992), Growth Accounting When Technical Change is Embodied in CapitalAmerican Economic Review82 (4), 964–980.
Maddison, A. (1987), Growth and Slowdown in Advanced Capitalist Economies: Techniques of Quantitative AssessmentJournal of Economic Literature25 (2), 649–706.
Nadiri, M.I. (1970), Some Approaches to the Theory and Measurement of Total Factor Productivity: A SurveyJournal of Economic Literature8 (4), 1137–1177.
Nelson, R.R. (1981), Research on Productivity Growth and Productivity Differences: Dead Ends and New DeparturesJournal of Economic Literature19 (3), 1029–1064.
Osang, T. and A. Nandy (2000), Impact of U.S. Environmental Regulation on the Competitiveness of Manufacturing IndustriesIn Submission.
Wolf, E.N. (1996), The Productivity Slowdown: The Culprit at Last? Follow up on Hulten and WolffAmerican Economic Review86 (5), 1239–1252
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Millimet, D.L., Osang, T. (2003). Environmental Regulation and Productivity Growth: An Analysis of U.S. Manufacturing Industries. In: Böhringer, C., Löschel, A. (eds) Empirical Modeling of the Economy and the Environment. ZEW Economic Studies, vol 20. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-57415-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-57415-3_2
Publisher Name: Physica, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-0078-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-57415-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive