Pollution control innovations and the Clean Air Act of 1990

David Popp
Additional contact information
David Popp: Department of Public Administration, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Postal: Department of Public Administration, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2003, vol. 22, issue 4, 641-660

Abstract: One advantage often cited for market-based environmental policies is that they are more likely to promote technological innovation than are command and control regulations. This paper uses patent data to study innovation in flue gas desulfurization units (“scrubbers”) across these policy regimes. Plant level data indicate that the effect of these patents on pollution control changed after passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act, which instituted a market for sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) permits. Previous regulations requiring plants constructed before 1990 to install scrubbers created incentives for innovation that lowered the costs of operating scrubbers, but did little to improve the environmental effectiveness of the technology. In comparison, innovations occurring since 1990 do serve to improve the removal efficiency of scrubbers. © 2003 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (165)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.10159 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)

Related works:
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:wly:jpamgt:v:22:y:2003:i:4:p:641-660

DOI: 10.1002/pam.10159

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().