Stakeholder scrutiny, urban bias, and the private provision of public goods

Elizabeth Chrun, Daniel Berliner and Aseem Prakash

Business and Politics, 2018, vol. 20, issue 2, 273-300

Abstract: While many scholars have studied “urban bias” in public policy, the potential for bias in the private provision of public goods has received little attention. Private certification is a mechanism encouraging private provision of environmental public goods. We show that within countries, there are often wide disparities in certification rates between firms located in urban and non-urban areas. However, these disparities can be mitigated if there is a countervailing force: scrutiny of firms' practices by key stakeholders. We suggest that the presence of strong civil society, independent media, a functioning state regulatory apparatus, and multinational owners can ameliorate the urban bias in certification uptakes. We test this argument with global, firm-level data covering over 40,000 firms in ninety-three countries. Our analyses suggest that an urban bias is mitigated when stakeholders—both public and private—have the freedom and capacity to scrutinize firms' activities.

Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:buspol:v:20:y:2018:i:02:p:273-300_00

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