This paper explores empirically the impact of enforcement efforts on environmental compliance, focusing on the role of regulator reputation spillover effects. We find that, on the margin, the impact of a fine for water pollutant violations is about a two-thirds reduction in the statewide violation rate in the year following a fine. This large result obtains through the regulator’s enhanced repu...

Value of Time: Speeding Behavior and Gasoline Prices Do drivers reduce speeds when gasoline prices are high? Previous research investigating this energy conservation hypothesis produced mixed results. We take a fresh look at the data and estimate a significant negative relationship between speeding and gasoline prices. This presents a new methodology of deriving the ‘Value of Time’ (VOT) based ...

We analyze environments where firms chose a production technology which, together with random events, determines the final emission level. We consider the coexistence of two alternative technologies. The cost of the adoption of the clean technology and the actual emissions are firms’ private information. The environmental regulation is based on taxes over reported emissions, and on monitoring a...

This paper investigates the optimal management of a firm faced with a long-term liability that occurs at a random date. Three issues are analysed: the optimal dividend policy; optimal expenditure on safety to delay the occurrence of the liability; and the optimal liquidation date of the firm. An owner faced with dynamic unlimited liability never liquidates and therefore accumulates capital to t...

Most industrialized countries have increased access to abortion over the past 30 years. Economic theory predicts that abortion laws affect sexual behavior since they change the marginal cost of having risky sex. We use gonorrhea incidence as a metric of risky sexual behavior. Using a panel of 41 North American, European and Central Asian countries over the period 1980-2000, we estimate the impa...

An increasingly popular instrument for solving environmental problems is the “public voluntary agreement (VA),” in which government o¤ers technical assistance and positive publicity to ...rms that reach certain environmental goals. Prior papers treat such agreements as a superior, low-cost instrument that can be used to preempt a threat of traditional, ine¢cient, regulation. We present a more g...

We analyze a model where firms chose a production technology which, together with some random event, determines the final emission level. We consider the coexistence of two alternative technologies: a “clean” technology, and a “dirty” technology. The environmental regulation is based on taxes over reported emissions, and on penalties over unreported emissions. We show that the optimal inspectio...

We compare the performance of liability rules for managing environmental disasters when third parties are harmed and cannot always be compensated. A firm can invest in safety to reduce the likelihood of accidents. The firm’s investment is unobservable to authorities. Externality and asymmetric information call for public intervention to define rules aimed at increasing prevention. We determine ...

Environmental crimes are unauthorized acts against the environment that are subject to criminal prosecution and sanction. While their deterrence e¤ect is largely unknown, policy is moving rapidly towards strengthening the role of criminal sanctioning in the context of environmental crime. This paper provides new evidence on the e¤ects of the use of criminal sanctions in environmental policy mak...

Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is a soluble carcinogen that has caused widespread contamination of soil and water in many industrial nations. Bacteria have the potential to aid remediation as certain strains can catalyze the reduction of Cr(VI) to insoluble and less toxic Cr(III). Here, we examine Cr(VI) reducing Microbacterium spp. (Cr-K1W, Cr-K20, Cr-K29, and Cr-K32) isolated from contaminated ...