World Bank memos

[Brad De Long]

>Brad writes:
>
>>In a lot of manufacturing industries, "dirty" production processes are a
>>lot cheaper than "clean" ones. Since labor productivity in many developing
>>economies is still very low, a demand that developing countries adopt
>>first-world standards of pollution control may be a demand that they not
>>industrialize--that they stay very poor.
>
>Henry reponded:
>
>>The post-war international division of labor has degenerated into the
>>export of pollution and sub-standard working conditions from the
>>developed economies. And it has to stop.
>
>Brad's right: under the current rules of the game, "a demand that
>developing countries adopt first-world standards of pollution control may
>be a demand that they not industrialize--that they stay very poor."  And
>that's why the rules themselves MUST be chagned.  Not a practical
>proposition, I know, but I REALLY bristle when I hear suggestions that the
>options are (a) poison, or (b) poverty.

Well, the *good* option would be for those of us in the first world to
provide those of us in the third world with powerful incentives and
capabilities to industrialize cleanly by providing large amounts of
development aid, technological assistance, and pollution control hardware.

But while that's not very expensive in terms of gross world product, it's
too expensive for our current political configuration to support...

Brad DeLong