Enforcing the Clean Water Act: The effect of state-level corruption on compliance

Katherine K. Grooms

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2015, vol. 73, issue C, 50-78

Abstract: This paper uses an event study to examine the transition from federal to state management of the Clean Water Act (CWA). I find that, overall, the transition from federal to state control has little effect on facility compliance, measured by the violation rate. However, states with a long run prevalence of corruption see a large decrease in the violation rate after authorization relative to states without corruption. Alternative specifications support these findings. I explore whether the response to transition to state control differs across political ideology, GDP and income per capita, government size, environmental preferences and government management performance. None of these alternative state level characteristics seem to account for the observed difference.

Keywords: Corruption; Federalism; Clean Water Act (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D73 H77 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:73:y:2015:i:c:p:50-78

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2015.06.005

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