Ecological dumping and environmental capital flight : the economics behind the propaganda

In this paper we analyze the connection between ecological dumping and environmental capital flight which in the literature is presented in three versions: capital flees in order to ecologically dump, firms flee and thus ecologically dump, and capital flees because governments ecologically dump. We find that 'ecological dumping' describes an ill posed problem: it has little to do with dumping and need not have any impact on the environment. Looking at the existing literature we find that although 'capital flight' is a misnomer, too, there are real problems dealt with under this heading. Nevertheless, because of their emotive and misleading undertone, we should better give up both notions.