IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jaerec/doi10.1086-726318.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Pressure and the Heterogeneous Effects of Voluntary Pollution Abatement

Author

Listed:
  • Ruohao Zhang
  • Neha Khanna

Abstract

We focus on the role of public pressure in environmental policy and describe a framework under which it is key to the success of voluntary pollution abatement. We hypothesize that a voluntary pollution abatement program changes the public pressure received by firms albeit differently for participants and nonparticipants. We describe these changes as well as the firm’s emission choices. We argue that, under our assumptions, the effectiveness of a voluntary pollution abatement program in lowering emissions depends on the cost from public scrutiny of participating firms and the associated risk of being labeled greenwashers: greater public scrutiny yields fewer program participants who free-ride on the reputation of the program, thereby increasing its effectiveness in lowering emissions. Our framework provides a narrative for reconciling the mixed empirical results on the effectiveness of voluntary pollution abatement programs and is supported by data from the EPA’s 33/50 program.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruohao Zhang & Neha Khanna, 2024. "Public Pressure and the Heterogeneous Effects of Voluntary Pollution Abatement," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(3), pages 719-754.
  • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jaerec:doi:10.1086/726318
    DOI: 10.1086/726318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/726318
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/726318
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/726318?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jaerec:doi:10.1086/726318. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JAERE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.