Management of Hazardous Waste and Contaminated Land

Hilary Sigman and Sarah Stafford ()
Additional contact information
Sarah Stafford: Department of Economics, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187

Annual Review of Resource Economics, 2011, vol. 3, issue 1, 255-275

Abstract: Regulation of hazardous waste and cleanup of contaminated sites are two major components of modern public policy for environmental protection. We review the literature on these related areas, with emphasis on empirical analyses. Researchers have identified many behavioral responses to regulation of hazardous waste, including changes in the location of economic activity. However, the drivers behind compliance with these costly regulations remain a puzzle, as most research suggests a limited role for conventional enforcement. Increasingly sophisticated research examines the benefits of cleanup of contaminated sites, yet controversy remains about whether the benefits of cleanup in the United States exceed its costs. Finally, research focusing on the imposition of legal liability for damages from hazardous waste finds advantages and disadvantages of the U.S. reliance on legal liability to pay for cleanup, as opposed to the government-financed approaches more common in Europe.

Keywords: environmental protection; pollution; liability; Superfund (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H77 K32 Q53 Q58 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-resource-083110-120011 (application/pdf)
Full text downloads are only available to subscribers. Visit the abstract page for more information.

Related works:
Working Paper: Management of Hazardous Waste and Contaminated Land (2010)
Working Paper: Management of Hazardous Waste and Contaminated Land (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:anr:reseco:v:3:y:2011:p:255-275

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.annualreviews.org/action/ecommerce

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Annual Review of Resource Economics from Annual Reviews Annual Reviews 4139 El Camino Way Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by http://www.annualreviews.org ().