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The Impact of Team Inspections on Enforcement and Deterrence

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  • Lucija Muehlenbachs
  • Stefan Staubli
  • Mark A. Cohen

Abstract

This paper provides new insights into the productivity of teams. Government enforcement agencies often send teams of inspectors instead of a sole inspector to a regulated facility. Yet, determining the impact of teams is problematic due to endogeneity (e.g., the enforcement agency might naturally send larger teams when they expect more violations). Exploiting weather-related exogenous variation in the number of inspectors who are sent to offshore oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, we show that adding an inspector to a team increases the number of sanctions issued as well as the severity of the sanctions. This increase in sanction severity is larger than that of an additional inspection. Therefore, enforcement agencies may be able to achieve stricter enforcement by reallocating inspectors into larger inspection teams, even if this is at the cost of conducting fewer inspections.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucija Muehlenbachs & Stefan Staubli & Mark A. Cohen, 2016. "The Impact of Team Inspections on Enforcement and Deterrence," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 159-204.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jaerec:doi:10.1086/684035
    DOI: 10.1086/684035
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    Cited by:

    1. Chenyang Xu & Klaas van’t Veld, 2020. "Team Inspection in the Management of Common-Pool Resources When Corruption is Present," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(3), pages 553-584, March.
    2. Nicholas J. Sanders & Ryan Sandler, 2020. "Technology and the Effectiveness of Regulatory Programs over Time: Vehicle Emissions and Smog Checks with a Changing Fleet," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(3), pages 587-618.
    3. Liang, Yuanning, 2023. "Do Safety Inspections Improve Safety? Evidence from the Roadside Inspection Program for Commercial Vehicles," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335618, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Liang, Yuanning, 2020. "Do Safety Inspections Improve Safety? Evidence from the Safety Inspection Program for Commercial Motor Vehicles," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304312, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Makofske, Matthew Philip, 2021. "Spoiled food and spoiled surprises: Inspection anticipation and regulatory compliance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 348-365.
    6. Gupta, Shreekant & Saksena, Shalini & Baris, Omer F., 2019. "Environmental enforcement and compliance in developing countries: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 313-327.
    7. Shimshack, Jay P. & Ward, Michael B., 2022. "Costly sanctions and the treatment of frequent violators in regulatory settings," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    8. Beatty, Timothy & Shimshack, Jay P., 2018. "Monitoring and Enforcement in a Food Safety Context," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273913, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Po Yin Wong & Karlygash Kuralbayeva & Liana O. Anderson & Ana M. Pessoa & Torfinn Harding, 2023. "Individual Pay for Collective Performance and Deforestation: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers 110, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    10. Kejia Hu & Sunil Chopra & Yuche Chen, 2021. "The Effect of Tightening Standards on Automakers’ Non‐compliance," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(9), pages 3094-3115, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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