Economics

Enforcement of pollution regulations in a declining industry

Document Type

Article

Abstract

A regulatory agency enforcing compliance in a declining industry might recognize that certain plants would close rather than comply, imposing large costs on the local community. Data on EPA enforcement activity in the U.S. steel industry are examined for evidence of this with a two-equation model linking EPA enforcement decisions and firms' plant-closing decisions. The results indicate that the EPA directed fewer enforcement actions toward plants with a high predicted probability of closing and plants that were major employers in their community; also, plants predicted to face relatively heavy enforcement were more likely to close. © 1991.

Publication Title

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

Publication Date

1991

Volume

21

Issue

3

First Page

260

Last Page

274

ISSN

0095-0696

DOI

10.1016/0095-0696(91)90030-M

Keywords

steel, Environmental Protection Agency

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