How did air quality standards affect employment at U.S. power plants? The importance of stringency, geography, and timing

Glenn Sheriff, Ann E. Ferris and Ron Shadbegian

No 312460, National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Abstract: Geographical differences in U.S. Clean Air Act requirements are often used to identify environmental regulatory impacts. The standard approach abstracts from aspects of the law affecting which areas are regulated, how strictly they are regulated, and when regulatory changes occur. We find that omitting these factors can bias results by contaminating the control group, leading to underestimation of historical employment impacts and overestimation of projected impacts from tightening regulations. Results indicate that 1990 changes to ozone nonattainment provisions reduced power plant employment without significantly affecting generation, suggesting that installation of pollution controls contributed to labor-saving technical change at affected sources.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Industrial Organization; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51
Date: 2015-05
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:nceewp:312460

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.312460

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