Gazi University Journal of Science Part B: Art Humanities Design and Planning

The pollution haven hypothesis refers to the idea that the highly pollution-intensive industries will relocate their activities from developed economies to the developing world. It is argued that the environmental concerns of the developed economies have caused them to enact strict environmental regulations, which have increased the cost of production of the dirty industries at home. The aim of this paper is to discuss the “pollution haven hypothesis” in the light of a comprehensive analysis of MNCs in Turkey. In order to test the hypothesis, dirty and clean industries are determined in the manufacturing industry. Multinational corporations are examined with reference to their sectors and their countries.  The results of this empirical study provide significant evidence for the pollution haven hypothesis in Turkey.