Environment-Friendly Behaviour and Competitiveness: A Study of Pulp and Paper Industry in India

This paper seeks to examine the relationship between competitiveness and environment-friendly behaviour of producers under an economic liberalisation regime. For that purpose, it employs a probit model and estimates the influence of the prime movers of industrial growth such as technical change and economies of scale on environmental degradation. The empirical results of the study of pulp and paper industry, identified as one of the most polluting industries in India, indicate that these variables, as the key players of competitiveness improvement, have positive influence on environment-friendly behaviour. Such findings, therefore, fail to provide support to a view that articulates ruthless exploitation of the environment under economic liberalisation programme. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999