This paper examines the role of liability for past environmental contamination in the privatization processes of Central and Eastern Europe. The theoretical section establishes a link between a risk-averse investor’s amount of information regarding the extent of past environmental contamination (and its cleanup costs) and the investor’s willingness to pay for a particular enterprise, i.e., bid. As the investor obtains a more precise estimate of the uncertain cleanup costs, the investor faces less risk; therefore, the investor’s risk premium falls and the investor’s bid rises. This link generates four hypotheses regarding a privatization agency’s responses to the investor’s knowledge of cleanup costs. The empirical section of this paper proposes to test these hypotheses with forthcoming analysis using data from the Czech Republic.
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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
2571.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
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