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The Regulator and the Judge: The Optimal Mix in TheControl of Environmental Risk

Author

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  • Yolande Hiriart

    (CECO - Laboratoire d'économétrie de l'École polytechnique - X - École polytechnique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • David Martimort

    (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Jérôme Pouyet

    (CECO - Laboratoire d'économétrie de l'École polytechnique - X - École polytechnique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

A firm engaged in activities which are environmentally risky has private information both on its choice of safety care and on the level of its assets. We study the interaction between the ex ante audit of the firm's precautionary effort by a regulator and the ex post check on the true level of the firm's assets by a judge following an accident. Both instruments are useful from an incentive viewpoint. The optimal policy mix between the regulator and the judge depends on the rule determining the judge's intervention and on the quality of the regulatory enforcement. We discuss the incentives of the judge and the regulator to broaden their mandates and undertake the task of the other branch. Finally, we interpret different scenarii for the regulator's and the judge's interventions in terms of legal principles.

Suggested Citation

  • Yolande Hiriart & David Martimort & Jérôme Pouyet, 2005. "The Regulator and the Judge: The Optimal Mix in TheControl of Environmental Risk," Working Papers hal-00243027, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00243027
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00243027
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    Cited by:

    1. Vera Angelova & Olivier Armantier & Giuseppe Attanasi & Yolande Hiriart, 2014. "Relative performance of liability rules: experimental evidence," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 77(4), pages 531-556, December.
    2. Pierre Bentata, 2014. "Liability as a complement to environmental regulation: an empirical study of the French legal system," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 16(3), pages 201-228, July.
    3. Thiago Morello, 2023. "An Agri-environmental Scheme for Reducing Inputs Subjected to Accidental Spillage: An Application to Agricultural Burnings by Smallholders," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(2), pages 383-408, February.
    4. Andrzej Baniak & Peter Grajzl, 2016. "Controlling Product Risks when Consumers Are Heterogeneously Overconfident: Producer Liability versus Minimum-Quality-Standard Regulation," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 172(2), pages 274-304, June.
    5. Andrzej Baniak & Peter Grajzl, 2014. "Controlling Product Risks when Consumers are Heterogeneously Overconfident: Producer Liability vs. Minimum Quality Standard Regulation," CESifo Working Paper Series 5003, CESifo.

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