Handel a środowisko - modele ekonometryczne

The interactions between international trade liberalisation and the slate of the environment can be illustrated with econometric models. Both theoretical and empirical models can be used. This type of research was mainly developed in the nineties. The first theoretical works did not have many assumptions. Gradually, the models were becoming increasingly sophisticated. On their basis three crucial effects were identified. These include: scale effect (related to the growth of economic activity caused by trade liberalisation), composition effect (reflecting changes in the structure of production caused by specialisation) and technical effect (related to the income growth and changing preferences towards clean environment). Empirical models are based more on historical data which is however difficult to obtain. To create these models it is necessary to adopt the available information. The example is the attempt to quantify the impact of the Uruguay Round trade negotiations on the environment. The final results of this type of research are very sensitive to the changes of variables.