“International Integration: A Hope for a Greener China?”

In recent years, the “trade up” argument has gained momentum. It argues that international integration can benefit developing countries’ environments by fostering the adoption of voluntary environmental standards, such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification. Based on this argument, a social marketing program that encourages greenness among buyers, especially downstream industrial buyers (for example, auto industry) in developed countries could motivate firms in developing countries go green. The purpose of this paper is to provide an investigation on whether “trade up” is a real hope, and what is required to make it real.Haitao Yin, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China and the Erb Institute.

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