Title: Competitiveness and environmental protection: a dirty dilemma

Authors: Geoffrey Oliver, Rishi Basak

Addresses: Economic and Regulatory Affairs Directorate, Environment Canada, 10 Wellington, TLC 24, Hull, QC, K1A 0H3, Canada. Economic and Regulatory Affairs Directorate, Environment Canada, 10 Wellington, TLC 24, Hull, QC, K1A 0H3, Canada

Abstract: Environmental authorities are regularly challenged to defend their regulations and policies in terms of how they impose additional costs on business and affect economic competitiveness. This paper discusses the links between environmental protection (and government policies and regulations more generally) and competitiveness. It provides a brief discussion on the nature of competitiveness, presents a Prisoners| Dilemma model of firm and government strategies that incorporates competition, and briefly relates the results of these investigations to key empirical results from the literature.

Keywords: environmental protection; competitiveness; competition; Prisoners| Dilemma; sustainable development; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2002.000734

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2002 Vol.1 No.3, pp.265-282

Published online: 17 Jul 2003 *

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