Economy and Sustainability—How Economic Integration Stimulates Stringent Environmental Regulations.docVIP

Sustainability 2009, 1, 1305-1322; doi:10.3390/su1041305 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 /journal/sustainability Article Economy and Sustainability—How Economic Integration Stimulates Stringent Environmental Regulations Jale Tosun * and Christoph Knill Department of Politics Management, University of Konstanz, Fach D 91, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany; E-Mail: Christoph.Knill@uni-konstanz.de * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: Jale.Tosun@uni-konstanz.de; Tel.: +49-7531-88-2301; Fax: +49-7531-88-2381. Received: 10 October 2009 / Accepted: 10 December 2009 / Published: 15 December 2009 Abstract: The interaction between economic integration and environmental policy has become an important issue in the last few years. Despite the considerable scholarly attention this topic attracted, actual government responses in terms of environmental policy outputs remain largely untouched by both theoretical and empirical work. To fill this gap, we suggest a theory-based disaggregation of the compound variable economic integration for deriving more precise expectations on its differential impact on environmental policy arrangements. In doing so, we show that economic integration may indeed trigger the promulgation of more demanding environmental regulations. To illustrate our arguments empirically, we analyze the development of Turkish clean air policy between 1975 and 2005. Keywords: international economic integration; government policy; environment and trade; sustainable development; Turkey; clean air policies 1. Introduction In the last three decades, a growing number of both industrialized and industrializing countries have decided to open their economies and conduct liberal trade policies. While the acceleration of international trade was initially regarded against the background of industrial development and income growth, gradually concerns emerged about