Centre for Development Economics
Department of Economics
Delhi School of Economics
ANNOUNCE A SEMINAR
Global integration and carbon intensity of Indian manufacturing firms
by
(Thursday, November 20, 2025, at 3:10 PM, IST )
Venue: Amex Room
Abstract:-
This paper examines the effect of greater global integration on carbon-intensity among Indian manufacturing firms. While the literature has established that exporting firms are cleaner and firms using imported inputs are also more carbon efficient, we differentiate between single-product and multi-product firms to elucidate the differential environmental performance of the firms. For single-product firms which are integrated in the global value chain, we find that imported inputs and imported technical knowhow have been significant in reducing carbon intensity. On the other hand, for multi-product firms which are integrated in the global value chain, we find robust evidence that imported inputs and capital goods have significantly reduced carbon intensity over the last two and half decades. Moreover, in-house R&D exhibits complementarity with imported capital goods in reducing emission intensity for multi-product firms. We conclude that it is important to enhance own R&D along with imported inputs to achieve the climate mitigation targets for Indian manufacturing.