Environmental protection has become one of the main concerns in developed economies, which is why an increasing degree of commitment in the field is required from all public and private bodies. Environmental protection in firms must cease to be a secondary, barely profitable objective, involving the performance of sporadic remedial actions, and become just one more element of their organization which, though it may require investment, may also provide a firm with major opportunities and cost reductions. This paper looks at the latest trends in expenditure on environmental protection by industrial firms. The information available is from the Spanish National Statistical Institute (INE), provided for the Spanish regions. Then, using shiftshare analysis, we will seek to ascertain whether there are competitive advantages and each region’s degree of specialization in the main lines of expenditure.
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