The Political Economy of Environmental Protectionism

In this book, Achim Korber carefully examines the influence of environmental policy on trade policy. He explores environmental protectionism and models it using public choice theory.

The author focuses on:

• a theoretical analysis of ecological protectionism and the potential misuse of environmental regulation as a tool to gain competitive advantage
• a comprehensive case study on the tuna-dolphin cases of the GATT/WTO. The study reveals that the US legislation was not - as it was widely perceived - a victory for the environmentalists but for the billion dollar industry of the US tuna canneries
• an in-depth literature survey on various approaches to protectionism including an analysis of lobbying models including the contest-success function.

The Political Economy of Environmental Protectionism, with its wealth of new material, will be of great interest to environmental, political, and trade economists as well as policymakers and researchers.