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Can consumers enforce environmental regulations? The role of the market in hazardous waste compliance

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  • Sarah Stafford

Abstract

We examine the U.S. hazardous waste management industry to assess the role that consumers play in encouraging environmental compliance. We first examine whether environmental performance affects consumer demand and find that noncompliance does decrease demand, at least in the short term. Next we consider whether market characteristics affect compliance behavior. While we do not find evidence that market size affects behavior, local competition does appear to increase compliance. However, as competition becomes less localized, it has a smaller effect. Finally, regardless of the pressures exerted by consumers to comply, commercial managers are less likely to be in compliance than on-site managers. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Stafford, 2007. "Can consumers enforce environmental regulations? The role of the market in hazardous waste compliance," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 83-107, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:31:y:2007:i:1:p:83-107
    DOI: 10.1007/s11149-006-9006-8
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    Cited by:

    1. Hilary Sigman & Sarah Stafford, 2011. "Management of Hazardous Waste and Contaminated Land," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 255-275, October.
    2. Sarah L. Stafford, 2016. "Environmental management systems and compliance at small and lightly regulated facilities: evidence from the New Hampshire hazardous waste program," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 292-314, June.
    3. Kopel, Michael & Lamantia, Fabio, 2018. "The persistence of social strategies under increasing competitive pressure," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 71-83.
    4. Liao, Zhongju & Chen, Jie & Weng, Chen & Zhu, Cunbin, 2023. "The effects of external supervision on firm-level environmental innovation in China: Are they substantive or strategic?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 267-277.
    5. Takayoshi Shinkuma & Shunsuke Managi, 2012. "Effectiveness of policy against illegal disposal of waste," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 14(2), pages 123-145, April.
    6. Tao Xie & Jianguo Du & Kofi Baah Boamah & Lingyan Xu & Mingyue Ma, 2023. "The Internal and External Factors of Environmental Destructive Behavior in the Supply Chain: New Evidence from the Perspective of Brand-Name Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Vincent Aloysius & Dadan Umar Daihani, 2011. "Closing The Waste Gap In Indonesia: Harnessing Industrial Waste To Prevent Pollution And Conserve Non-Renewable Resources," Working Papers 2011/29, Maastricht School of Management.
    8. Magnus Söderberg & Makoto Tanaka, 2012. "Spatial price homogeneity as a mechanism to reduce the threat of regulatory intervention in locally monopolistic sectors," Working Papers hal-00659458, HAL.
    9. Zhongju Liao & Chen Weng & Chen Shen, 2020. "Can public surveillance promote corporate environmental innovation? The mediating role of environmental law enforcement," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1519-1527, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Commercial environmentalism; Compliance; Enforcement; Hazardous waste; Market size; Competition; Q28; K42; D21;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory

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