Dissertation: "Essays in International Non-market Strategy and the Political Economy of Environmental Regulation"
Description
My dissertation is part of a research agenda intended to advance our understanding of the interaction between companies and non-market actors (e.g. regulators) in an international context. The empirical setting of my analysis is the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the largest active cap-and-trade program in the world. Introduced in 2005, the EU ETS requires companies across the EU to internalize the costs of emitting greenhouse gases by mandating that firms possess sufficient emissions rights (allowances) to cover their actual emissions. At an allowance price above 0, these emissions allowances represent economic rents that are being distributed directly from the regulators to the affected industrial sectors, firms and installations. Due to the unprecedented scale and reach of the EU ETS, the issue of how this type of environmental regulation affects the competitive position of companies is therefore very important and warrants further investigation. My dissertation focuses on how firms can capture economic rents within the EU ETS and on the role of institutional and political factors in the allocation of emissions allowances by regulators in the EU.
For my analysis, I have constructed a comprehensive panel dataset (2005-2010) on industries, companies and installations covered by the EU ETS in all 27 EU member states. In my main thesis paper, I am examining how some companies exploit imperfections in environmental permit markets through the strategic use of different types of emissions allowances. My research is conducted in the context of prior literature on the role of the institutional environment, non-market factors and transaction costs for firm strategy (relevant authors include Caves, Henisz, Khanna and Siegel). The richness of the dataset and unique setting of the EU ETS allow me to examine the issues I am interested in from a variety of angles. Through my dissertation I strive to advance our knowledge in the fields of non-market strategy and international business and to improve our understanding of the effect of climate change regulation on corporate strategy (please feel free to contact me for more details about my dissertation papers).