European regulations to reduce lead emissions from automobiles ? did they have an economic impact on the German gasoline and automobile markets?

Does the ‘California effect’ operate across borders? Trading- and investing-up in automobile emission standards

“…3 A large number of studies have shown that exports to, and inward investment from, countries which have a higher number of adopters of a particular code, e.g. ISO14001, increases the domestic adoption of the same code (Albuquerque et al 2007;Corbett and Kirsch 2001;Neumayer and Perkins 2004;Perkins and Neumayer 2010;Prakash and Potoski 2007 4 This demand for regulatory tightening was fuelled by growing public and political concern in Germany about the effects of 'acid rain' (Hagner 2000). Yet, government support for more stringent EU-wide standards was considerably strengthened by the fact that German vehicle manufacturers were major exporters to the higher-regulating US market, and therefore already producing vehicles capable of complying with more stringent standards (Boehmer-Christiansen and Weidner 1995;Vogel 1997).…”

“…Yet, government support for more stringent EU-wide standards was considerably strengthened by the fact that German vehicle manufacturers were major exporters to the higher-regulating US market, and therefore already producing vehicles capable of complying with more stringent standards (Boehmer-Christiansen and Weidner 1995;Vogel 1997). Raising regulatory standards across the EU closer to US levels gave German firms a competitive advantage over some of their EU rivals -at least in the short-term (Hagner 2000). A similar story of market integration leading countries to emulate more stringent automobile emission standards in their major trade and investment partners has been documented elsewhere, e.g.…”

“…National public automobile emissions standards -governing maximum permissible levels of tailpipe emissions for pollutants from new automobiles 5 -were first introduced in the US, Japan and various European 6 countries in the 1960s and 1970s (Hagner 2000). Early standards were comparatively weak.…”

“…Manufacturing similar vehicles for use in both home and foreign markets will reduce unit costs and, importantly, contribute to improved export competitiveness (Hagner 2000;Jänicke and Jacob 2004). Although firms located in low-regulating countries could achieve scale economies by producing beyond-compliance vehicles for the domestic market, two factors weigh against doing so.…”

Reassessing past European gasoline lead policies

“…And in 1972, a group of French government experts did not acknowledge that any automobile emissions were dangerous (see von Storch et al [2002]). The European Union (EU) fixed its limit modestly at 0.4 g Pb/1, beginning only in 1981,and prohibited all countries from stipulating national limits lower than 0.15 g Pb/1 (Council Directive 78/611/EEC of 1978) [Hagner, 2000]. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 In the 1980s, discussion of automobile air pollution in Europe moved to concerns about forest protection due to the effects of massive NO x ,CO,and C x H y emissions.This discussion was also initiated by Germany, where citizens were concerned with the serious deterioration of their beloved forests due to acid rain and photo-oxidation.…”