Environmental stakeholders, environmental strategies, and productivity of Tunisian manufacturing industries

The main objective of this study was to analyze the impact of environmental strategies on productivity in industries that face different environmental stakeholders' pressures using the data of 26 Tunisian manufacturing industries over the period 1994-2008. We first measured the evolution of total factor productivity (TFP) as well as its components using the output-oriented Malmquist productivity index method. Our findings revealed that TFP has witnessed an average increase of 1.5% per year during the above mentioned period. This growth can be explained by technological progress (1.6%) and a loss efficiency (0.1%). Second, we assessed the effect of the environmental strategies on the TFP growth using a panel data model. Our results showed that the pollution abatement activities have two major effects. On the one hand, they negatively affected productivity. On the other hand, they could improve and develop the economic activity.