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Environmental disasters as risk regulation catalysts? The role of Bhopal, Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez, Love Canal, and Three Mile Island in shaping U.S. environmental law

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  • Matthew Kahn

    ()

Abstract

Unexpected events such as environmental catastrophes capture wide public attention. Soon after five major shocks—Three Mile Island, Love Canal, Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill—Congress voted on new risk regulation. This paper conducts an event study to test whether individual congressional representatives were “shocked” by these environmental disasters into increasing their probability of voting in favor of risk legislation. On average, representatives were less likely to vote in favor of bills tied to these five events. Significant heterogeneity in representatives’ responses to these shocks is documented. Liberal Northeast representatives were most likely to increase their pro-environment voting in the aftermath of these shocks. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11166-007-9016-7
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Article provided by Springer in its journal Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.

Volume (Year): 35 (2007)
Issue (Month): 1 (August)
Pages: 17-43

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Handle: RePEc:kap:jrisku:v:35:y:2007:i:1:p:17-43
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=100299

Keywords: Risk; Regulation; Disasters; Voting; D62; I18; L51;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
  • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
  • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The Causes and Consequences of Environmentalism
    by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2010-08-25 01:03:00
  2. What New Legislation will Be Caused by the BP Spill?
    by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2010-05-28 15:13:00
  3. Environmental Disasters as Regulation Catalysts: The Case of the April 2010 Oil Spill
    by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2010-05-02 03:12:00
  4. Can Carbon "Cap and Trade" Make a Comeback?
    by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2010-03-28 18:04:00
  5. The Economics of Heat Waves
    by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2012-08-05 20:50:00
  6. Do Nudges Work With Teenagers? and a Quibble with the LA Times
    by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2012-11-02 01:25:00
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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Cited by:

  1. Yamamura, Eiji, 2012. "Experience of technological and natural disasters and their impact on the perceived risk of nuclear accidents after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan 2011: A cross-country analysis," MPRA Paper 37016, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Yamamura, Eiji, 2012. "Atomic bombs and the long-run effect on trust: Experiences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki," MPRA Paper 36805, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  3. W. Viscusi, 2009. "Valuing risks of death from terrorism and natural disasters," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 191-213, June.
  4. Roger Fouquet, 2011. "The Demand for Environmental Quality in Driving Transitions to Low Polluting Energy Sources," Working Papers 2011-11, BC3.
  5. Yamamura, Eiji, 2013. "Impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the body mass index of students in Japan," MPRA Paper 43920, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  6. Laguna, Marie-Aude, 2010. "Unexpected Media Coverage and Stock Market Outcomes : Evidence from Chemical Disasters," Economics Papers from University Paris Dauphine 123456789/5891, Paris Dauphine University.
  7. Eddy Ng & Ronald Burke, 2010. "Predictor of Business Students’ Attitudes Toward Sustainable Business Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 95(4), pages 603-615, September.
  8. Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "Effect of free media on views regarding the safety of nuclear energy after the 2011 disasters in Japan: evidence using cross-country data," MPRA Paper 32011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  9. Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "How does corruption influence perceptions of the risk of nuclear accidents?: cross-country analysis after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan," MPRA Paper 31708, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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