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The Clean Air Act Watch List: An Enforcement and Compliance Natural Experiment

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  • Mary F. Evans

Abstract

I exploit a natural experiment created by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Act watch list. The watch list was designed as a monthly tracking system for internal use at EPA, but its existence and the identities of facilities on some watch lists were publicly revealed beginning in late 2011. Variation created by the watch list and its public release allow me to identify the compliance impact of listing on the watch list and the compliance impact of the public release of the watch list. Results suggest that the average violation probability fell between 10 and 15 percentage points as a result of initial listing on the watch list and between 15 and 23 percentage points as a result of the public release of the watch list. The paper’s findings inform the discussion regarding the effectiveness of traditional and information-based enforcement tools.

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  • Mary F. Evans, 2016. "The Clean Air Act Watch List: An Enforcement and Compliance Natural Experiment," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 627-665.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jaerec:doi:10.1086/686295
    DOI: 10.1086/686295
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    2. Zhihong Zeng & Chen You, 2022. "The Price of Becoming a City: Decentralization and Air Pollution—The Evidence from the Policy of County-to-City Upgrade in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Brady, Jacob & Evans, Mary F. & Wehrly, Eric W., 2019. "Reputational penalties for environmental violations: A pure and scientific replication study," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 60-72.
    4. Mullins, Jamie T., 2018. "Motivating emissions cleanup: Absolute vs. relative performance standards," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 66-92.
    5. Haiqing Hu & Di Chen & Chun‐Ping Chang & Yin Chu, 2021. "The Political Economy Of Environmental Consequences: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 250-306, February.
    6. Matthew Gibson, 2019. "Regulation-Induced Pollution Substitution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(5), pages 827-840, December.
    7. Wesley Blundell & Gautam Gowrisankaran & Ashley Langer, 2020. "Escalation of Scrutiny: The Gains from Dynamic Enforcement of Environmental Regulations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(8), pages 2558-2585, August.
    8. Rijal, Binish & Khanna, Neha, 2020. "High priority violations and intra-firm pollution substitution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    9. Blundell, Wesley, 2020. "When threats become credible: A natural experiment of environmental enforcement from Florida," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    10. Shimshack, Jay P. & Ward, Michael B., 2022. "Costly sanctions and the treatment of frequent violators in regulatory settings," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    11. Evans, Mary F. & Stafford, Sarah L., 2019. "The Clean Air Act Watch List and federal oversight of state enforcement efforts," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 170-184.
    12. Kejia Hu & Sunil Chopra & Yuche Chen, 2021. "The Effect of Tightening Standards on Automakers’ Non‐compliance," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(9), pages 3094-3115, September.

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