 Self-Policing Statutes: Do They Reduce Pollution and Save Regulatory Costs?Santiago Guerrero () and Robert Innes () The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 2013, vol. 29, issue 3, 608-637 Abstract: State-level statutes provide firms that engage in environmental self-audits, and that self-report their environmental violations, a variety of regulatory rewards, including "immunity" from penalties and "privilege" for information contained in self-audits. This article studies a panel of state-level industries from 1989 through 2003, to determine the effects of the different types of statutes on toxic pollution and government inspections. We find that, by encouraging self-auditing, privilege protections tend to reduce pollution and government enforcement activity; however, sweeping immunity protections, by reducing firms' pollution prevention incentives, raise toxic pollution and government inspection oversight. The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Yale University. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press. Date: 2013 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jleorg:v:29:y:2013:i:3:p:608-637 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization is currently edited by Andrea Prat More articles in The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.