Arik Levinson
Biographic Data
| ID | 1471314 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arik Levinson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arik |
| FAMILY NAME | Levinson |
| SIGNATURE | LEVINSON A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgetown University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9464-4936 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Tariffs are an obstacle to the clean energy transition
Tariffs on clean‐energy technology
Are Developed Countries Outsourcing Pollution
Have rich countries improved their environments by importing polluting goods? No, the mix of goods imported has shifted towards those from cleaner industries, not dirtier. Has pollution worsened in poor countries manufacturing goods for export to rich ones? That depends. Emissions intensities for similar industries are higher in poor countries, which means that even balanced trade causes more pollution there, even for the same goods. And proporti…
When Can Benefit–Cost Analyses Ignore Secondary Markets
We make four main contributions in this paper related to the theory and practice of benefit–cost analysis (BCA). First, we show that most BCAs of policy interventions do not consider the welfare consequences in secondary markets, where goods or services can be complements or substitutes to those in the directly regulated markets. Second, we provide a general theoretical analysis for examining the sign of welfare effects in secondary markets, show…
Environmental Engel Curves
Environmental Engel curves (EECs) describe households’ incomes and the pollution necessary to produce the goods and services they consume. We calculate 29 annual EECs from 1984 to 2012 for point-source air pollutants in the United States, revealing three clear results: EECs slope upward, have income elasticities less than 1, and shift down over time. Even without changes to production techniques, pollution would have declined despite growing inco…
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
In April 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington DC agreed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay indefinitely a lawsuit over the Agency’s regulation governing mercury pollution from power plants. Lawyers for the EPA argued that they needed time to evaluate the status of the lawsuit, due to “the recent change in Administration.” The case, Murray v. EPA, centers on the Agency’s analysis of the benefits of reducing mercu…
Automobile Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards
In March 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reopened an evaluation of the automotive fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards that the EPA had finalized in January. This case provides a history of the rules, along with assessments of their costs and benefits. It addresses numerous debates, including the environmental benefits of the rules, the role of electric vehicles, whether the standards should be less strict for larger cars, and…
Valuing public goods using happiness data
Pollution and international trade in services
Technology, International Trade, and Pollution from US Manufacturing
Pollution emitted by US manufacturers declined markedly over the past several decades, even as real manufacturing output increased. I first show that most of the decline in US manufacturing pollution has resulted from changing production processes (“technology”), rather than changes in the mix of goods produced. I then show that increased net imports of polluting goods (“international trade”) accounts for only a small portion of the pollution red…
Unmasking the Pollution Haven Effect
We use theory and empirics to examine the effect of environmental regulations on trade flows. A simple model demonstrates how unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity, and aggregation issues bias standard measurements of this relationship. A reduced‐form estimate of the model, using data on U.S. regulations and trade with Canada and Mexico for 130 manufacturing industries from 1977 to 1986, indicates that industries whose abatement costs increased m…
Footloose and Pollution-Free
In numerous studies, economists have found little empirical evidence that environmental regulations affect trade flows. In this paper, we propose and test several common explanations for why the effect of environmental regulations on trade may be difficult to detect. We demonstrate that whereas most trade occurs among industrialized economies, environmental regulations have stronger effects on trade between industrialized and developing economies…
Reexamining the Empirical Evidence for an Environmental Kuznets Curve
This paper uses an updated and revised panel data set on ambient air pollution in cities worldwide to examine the robustness of the evidence for the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between national income and pollution. We test the sensitivity of the pollution-income relationship to functional forms, to additional covariates, and to changes in the nations, cities, and years sampled. We find that the results are highly sensitive to …
Pollution Abatement Costs and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows to U.S. States
This paper estimates the effect of changing environmental standards on patterns of international investment. The analysis advances the existing literature in three ways. First, we avoid comparing different countries by examining foreign direct investment in the United States and differences in pollution abatement costs among U.S. states. Data on environmental costs in U.S. states are more comparable than those for different countries, and U.S. st…
The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve
Grandfather regulations, new source bias, and state air toxics regulations
Are Developed Countries Outsourcing Pollution
Have rich countries improved their environments by importing polluting goods? No, the mix of goods imported has shifted towards those from cleaner industries, not dirtier. Has pollution worsened in poor countries manufacturing goods for export to rich ones? That depends. Emissions intensities for similar industries are higher in poor countries, which means that even balanced trade causes more pollution there, even for the same goods. And proporti…
Pollution and international trade in services
Grandfather regulations, new source bias, and state air toxics regulations
The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve
Reexamining the Empirical Evidence for an Environmental Kuznets Curve
This paper uses an updated and revised panel data set on ambient air pollution in cities worldwide to examine the robustness of the evidence for the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between national income and pollution. We test the sensitivity of the pollution-income relationship to functional forms, to additional covariates, and to changes in the nations, cities, and years sampled. We find that the results are highly sensitive to …
Pollution Abatement Costs and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows to U.S. States
This paper estimates the effect of changing environmental standards on patterns of international investment. The analysis advances the existing literature in three ways. First, we avoid comparing different countries by examining foreign direct investment in the United States and differences in pollution abatement costs among U.S. states. Data on environmental costs in U.S. states are more comparable than those for different countries, and U.S. st…
Footloose and Pollution-Free
In numerous studies, economists have found little empirical evidence that environmental regulations affect trade flows. In this paper, we propose and test several common explanations for why the effect of environmental regulations on trade may be difficult to detect. We demonstrate that whereas most trade occurs among industrialized economies, environmental regulations have stronger effects on trade between industrialized and developing economies…
Unmasking the Pollution Haven Effect
We use theory and empirics to examine the effect of environmental regulations on trade flows. A simple model demonstrates how unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity, and aggregation issues bias standard measurements of this relationship. A reduced‐form estimate of the model, using data on U.S. regulations and trade with Canada and Mexico for 130 manufacturing industries from 1977 to 1986, indicates that industries whose abatement costs increased m…
Technology, International Trade, and Pollution from US Manufacturing
Pollution emitted by US manufacturers declined markedly over the past several decades, even as real manufacturing output increased. I first show that most of the decline in US manufacturing pollution has resulted from changing production processes (“technology”), rather than changes in the mix of goods produced. I then show that increased net imports of polluting goods (“international trade”) accounts for only a small portion of the pollution red…
Pollution and international trade in services
Valuing public goods using happiness data
Automobile Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards
In March 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reopened an evaluation of the automotive fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards that the EPA had finalized in January. This case provides a history of the rules, along with assessments of their costs and benefits. It addresses numerous debates, including the environmental benefits of the rules, the role of electric vehicles, whether the standards should be less strict for larger cars, and…
Mercury and Air Toxics Standards
In April 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington DC agreed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay indefinitely a lawsuit over the Agency’s regulation governing mercury pollution from power plants. Lawyers for the EPA argued that they needed time to evaluate the status of the lawsuit, due to “the recent change in Administration.” The case, Murray v. EPA, centers on the Agency’s analysis of the benefits of reducing mercu…
Environmental Engel Curves
Environmental Engel curves (EECs) describe households’ incomes and the pollution necessary to produce the goods and services they consume. We calculate 29 annual EECs from 1984 to 2012 for point-source air pollutants in the United States, revealing three clear results: EECs slope upward, have income elasticities less than 1, and shift down over time. Even without changes to production techniques, pollution would have declined despite growing inco…
When Can Benefit–Cost Analyses Ignore Secondary Markets
We make four main contributions in this paper related to the theory and practice of benefit–cost analysis (BCA). First, we show that most BCAs of policy interventions do not consider the welfare consequences in secondary markets, where goods or services can be complements or substitutes to those in the directly regulated markets. Second, we provide a general theoretical analysis for examining the sign of welfare effects in secondary markets, show…
Are Developed Countries Outsourcing Pollution
Have rich countries improved their environments by importing polluting goods? No, the mix of goods imported has shifted towards those from cleaner industries, not dirtier. Has pollution worsened in poor countries manufacturing goods for export to rich ones? That depends. Emissions intensities for similar industries are higher in poor countries, which means that even balanced trade causes more pollution there, even for the same goods. And proporti…
Tariffs are an obstacle to the clean energy transition
Tariffs on clean‐energy technology
Economics (14 works) · Energy, Environment, Economic Growth (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Climate Change Policy and Economics (8 works) · Natural resource economics (8 works) · Pollution (8 works) · Pollution (7 works) · Econometrics (6 works) · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth (6 works) · International trade (6 works)