「污染庇護所假說」認為一個環境管制較為嚴格的國家將更專業於較為乾淨產品的生產，而增加污染性較高產品的進口，並將污染性產業移到國外去生產，進而改善國內的環境品質。本研究利用1992 年至2003 年期間台灣製造業二欄位產業別的追蹤資料，以固定和隨機效果模型進行實證，探討環境管制對於對外投資活動的影響，並檢視台灣是否將污染性產業轉移至較為落後國家生產。實證結果顯示，過去這十多年來，台灣污染密集度高的產業顯著地增加對非OECD 國家的投資件數，非OECD 國家已成為台灣高污染性產業的「污染庇護所」，這和Eskeland and Harrison (2003) 的研究結果有所不同，他們的研究顯示：美國的環境管制標準對於對外直接投資活動並無顯著的影響。

Countries with strict environmental regulations can steer away from polluting industries and put greater emphasis on cleaner industries. They move the polluting industry abroad, whereby improves their environmental quality. This assumption has been called the pollution haven hypothesis. The main purpose of this paper is to examine whether Taiwan’s polluting industries have been transferred to production in the less developed countries while Taiwan itself goes toward strict environmental regulation. The 2-digit industry-level panel data of Taiwan’s manufacturing from 1992 to 2003 is adopted. The panel fixed effects models are used to study the effects of environmental regulation on the outbound investments. It is significant that the polluting industries have increased the cases of outbound investments in the non-OECD countries in the last ten years. Obviously, the non-OECD countries have become the haven of Taiwan’s high polluting industries.