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EPA enforcement, firm response strategies, and stockholder wealth: an empirical examination

Author

Listed:
  • J.C. Bosch

    (University of Colorado at Denver, USA)

  • E. Woodrow Eckard

    (University of Colorado at Denver, USA)

  • Insup Lee

    (Seoul Investment Trust Management Co., Korea)

Abstract

We investigate the effect of EPA pollution control enforcement activities and firm response strategies on stockholders' wealth. We find that the market reacts negatively upon learning that the firm has been targeted, and that losing a contest with the EPA is very costly to stockholders. Apparently firms are not expected to recover a significant part of pollution control costs from their customers. Somewhat surprisingly, losses are only weakly related to the presence of (unregulated) foreign competition, suggesting that untargeted domestic competitors may restrain cost recovery. Our analysis also indicates that firms may benefit by cooperating with the EPA; i.e., compliant strategies reduce (but don't avoid) wealth losses. The losses of firms that settle are about 40% less than those of firms that fight and lose, and we find no evidence of value gains for firms that fight and win. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • J.C. Bosch & E. Woodrow Eckard & Insup Lee, 1998. "EPA enforcement, firm response strategies, and stockholder wealth: an empirical examination," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 167-177.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:19:y:1998:i:3:p:167-177
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1468(199805)19:3<167::AID-MDE882>3.0.CO;2-7
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    Cited by:

    1. Cañón-de-Francia, Joaquín & Garcés-Ayerbe, Concepción & Ramírez-Alesón, Marisa, 2008. "Analysis of the effectiveness of the first European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 83-92, August.
    2. Halkos, George & Sepetis, Anastasios, 2007. "Can capital markets respond to environmental policy of firms? Evidence from Greece," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2-3), pages 578-587, August.
    3. Dietrich Earnhart & Lubomir Lizal, 2002. "Effects of Ownership and Financial Status on Corporate Environmental Performance," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp203, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    4. Yassin Denis Bouzzine & Rainer Lueg, 2020. "The contagion effect of environmental violations: The case of Dieselgate in Germany," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3187-3202, December.
    5. Jan Endrikat, 2016. "Market Reactions to Corporate Environmental Performance Related Events: A Meta-analytic Consolidation of the Empirical Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 535-548, October.
    6. Tera L. Galloway & Douglas R. Miller & Kun Liu, 2023. "Guilty by Association: Spillover of Regulative Violations and Repair Efforts to Alliance Partners," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 805-818, January.
    7. Vincent Denommee-Gravel & Kyungho Kim, 2019. "Pipeline Accidents and Incidents, Environmental Consciousness, and Financial Performance in the Canadian Energy Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-17, June.
    8. Sebouh Aintablian & Patricia A. Mcgraw & Gordon S. Roberts, 2007. "Bank Monitoring and Environmental Risk," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1‐2), pages 389-401, January.
    9. Earnhart, Dietrich & Lizal, Lubomir, 2006. "Effects of ownership and financial performance on corporate environmental performance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 111-129, March.
    10. Jorge A. Romero & Martin Freedman & Neale G. O'Connor, 2018. "The impact of Environmental Protection Agency penalties on financial performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1733-1740, December.
    11. Dietrich Earnhart & Lubomir Lizal, 2007. "Does Better Environmental Performance Affect Revenues, Cost, or Both? Evidence From a Transition Economy," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp856, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    12. Giuliana Birindelli & Helen Chiappini, 2021. "Climate change policies: Good news or bad news for firms in the European Union?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 831-848, March.
    13. David Noack & Douglas R. Miller & Dustin Smith, 2019. "Let Me Make It Up to You: Understanding the Mitigative Ability of Corporate Social Responsibility Following Product Recalls," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 431-446, June.
    14. Birindelli, Giuliana & Miazza, Aline & Paimanova, Viktoriia & Palea, Vera, 2023. "Just “blah blah blah”? Stock market expectations and reactions to COP26," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    15. Muehlenbachs, Lucija & Newcomb Sinha, Elisabeth & Ranjan Sinha, Nitish, 2011. "Strategic Release of News at the EPA," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-45, Resources for the Future.

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