Energy use and exporting: an analysis of Chinese firms

As global emissions increase with trade, there is a critical need to understand the importance of energy use in export-oriented manufacturing activities emerging economies. We investigate this issue by examining whether extent firms’ involvement exporting associated energy-intensiveness their production activities. data from survey Chinese firms, officially classified as users ‘advanced’ technologies. Although recent years China has been attempting discourage exports energy- and pollution-intensive products, our results show positive association between energy-use intensity exporting. This relationship exists across industries different levels technological sophistication, but particularly salient characterized high intensity. discuss theoretical policy implications these findings.