Grantham Workshop | Damien Dussaux

Damien Dussaux, a Research Officer at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, will be the speaker for this seminar.

Abstract

I examine the impact of Chinese import competition on firms’ technical change and energy intensity using a panel of over 10,000 French companies across 40 manufacturing industries observed from 1994 to 2013. On the intensive margin, I find that surviving firms facing higher levels of Chinese import competition decrease more their energy intensity. I find that this effect is lower for firms operating in industries with rigorous environmental regulations. In addition, Chinese import competition is found to have increased surviving firms’ TFP more in industries with lax environmental regulations. On the extensive margin, I find that Chinese import competition shrinks firms’ level of employment and decreases firms’ survival probabilities. The effect is found to be larger in industry with stringent environmental regulations. These results on firm-level adjustments illustrate the implications of environmental policies on industry-level employment and pollution emissions.