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Pollution Abatement Expenditure by U.S. Manufacturing Plants: Do Community Characteristics Matter?

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  • Becker Randy A

    (U.S. Bureau of the Census)

Abstract

This paper examines whether community characteristics impact the air pollution abatement (APA) activity at nearby manufacturing plants, using establishment-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures (PACE) survey. Controlling for facility characteristics and various forms of formal environmental regulation, certain community characteristics are found to have additional effects on local APA expenditures. In particular, for the most pollution-intensive industries, larger per capita income is found to increase plant-level APA activity, as is a higher degree of homeownership, a greater concentration of Democratic voters, and being located in a metropolitan area. Meanwhile, a greater presence of manufacturing employees is found to decrease APA expenditures, suggesting a constituency that is more resistant to additional regulation. If local populations can indeed affect pollution abatement activity, they can impact the spatial distribution of pollution, thereby creating pollution haven effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Becker Randy A, 2003. "Pollution Abatement Expenditure by U.S. Manufacturing Plants: Do Community Characteristics Matter?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 1-23, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:contributions.3:y:2004:i:2:n:6
    DOI: 10.2202/1538-0645.1231
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    Cited by:

    1. Don Fullerton & Garth Heutel, 2010. "The General Equilibrium Incidence of Environmental Mandates," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 64-89, August.
    2. Becker, Randy A., 2011. "Local environmental regulation and plant-level productivity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2516-2522.
    3. Stefanie Haller & Liam Murphy, 2012. "Corporate Expenditure on Environmental Protection," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 51(2), pages 277-296, February.
    4. Harrington, Donna Ramirez, 2012. "Two-stage adoption of different types of pollution prevention (P2) activities," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 349-373.
    5. Shimshack, Jay P. & Ward, Michael B., 2008. "Enforcement and over-compliance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 90-105, January.
    6. Cynthia Morgan & Ronald J. Shadbegian & Wayne B. Gray, 2005. "Benefits and Costs from Sulfur Dioxide Trading: A Distributional Analysis," NCEE Working Paper Series 200509, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Dec 2005.
    7. Bruno De Borger & Amihai Glazer, 2015. "Inducing political action by workers," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(4), pages 1117-1144, April.
    8. Ronald Shadbegian & Randy Becker, 2004. "A Change of PACE: Comparing the 1994 and 1999 Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures Surveys," Working Papers 04-09, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Cole, Matthew A. & Elliott, Robert J.R. & Khemmarat, Khemrutai, 2013. "Local exposure to toxic releases: Examining the role of ethnic fractionalization and polarisation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 249-259.
    10. Maggioni, Daniela & Santangelo, Grazia D., 2017. "Local Environmental Non-Profit Organizations and the Green Investment Strategies of Family Firms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 126-138.
    11. Khanna Madhu & Widyawati Diah, 2011. "Fostering Regulatory Compliance: The Role of Environmental Self-Auditing and Audit Policies," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 125-160, May.
    12. Dustin Chambers & Courtney A. Collins & Alan Krause, 2019. "How do federal regulations affect consumer prices? An analysis of the regressive effects of regulation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 57-90, July.
    13. Chambers, Dustin & Collins, Courtney, 2016. "How Do Federal Regulations Affect Consumer Prices? An Analysis of the Regressive Effects of Regulation," Working Papers 06871, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    14. Markus Kitzmueller & Jay Shimshack, 2012. "Economic Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 51-84, March.
    15. Donna Ramirez Harrington, 2013. "Effectiveness Of State Pollution Prevention Programs And Policies," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(2), pages 255-278, April.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L6 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing
    • Q21 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water

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