IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cer/papers/wp405.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pollution Control in a Transition Economy: Do Firms Face Economies and/or Diseconomies of Scale?

Author

Listed:
  • Dietrich Earnhart
  • Lubomir Lizal

Abstract

We empirically assess whether firms face economies and/or diseconomies of scale with respect to air pollution control by evaluating the effects of production on firmlevel air emission levels using a panel of Czech firms during the country’s transitional period of 1993 to 1998. By estimating a separate set of production-related coefficients for each individual sector, the analysis permits economies/diseconomies of scale to differ across sectors. More important, the analysis allows these scale effects to vary over time, which seems critical in the context of a transition economy, as the Czech government was tightening air protection polices by imposing more stringent emission limits and escalating emission charge rates. To assess whether these tighter policies expanded economies of scale, the analysis controls for heterogeneity across individual firms by examining intrafirm variation in emissions and production

Suggested Citation

  • Dietrich Earnhart & Lubomir Lizal, 2010. "Pollution Control in a Transition Economy: Do Firms Face Economies and/or Diseconomies of Scale?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp405, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    • Handle: RePEc:cer:papers:wp405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp405.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Hua & Wheeler, David, 2005. "Financial incentives and endogenous enforcement in China's pollution levy system," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 174-196, January.
    2. Arora Seema & Cason Timothy N., 1995. "An Experiment in Voluntary Environmental Regulation: Participation in EPA's 33/50 Program," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 271-286, May.
    3. Shameek Konar & Mark A. Cohen, 2001. "Does The Market Value Environmental Performance?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(2), pages 281-289, May.
    4. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon, 1999. "Ownership Concentration and Corporate Performance in the Czech Republic," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 498-513, September.
    5. Mickwitz, Per, 2003. "Is it as bad as it sounds or as good as it looks? Experiences of Finnish water discharge limits," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 237-254, June.
    6. Kiviet, Jan F., 1995. "On bias, inconsistency, and efficiency of various estimators in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 53-78, July.
    7. Konar, Shameek & Cohen, Mark A., 1997. "Information As Regulation: The Effect of Community Right to Know Laws on Toxic Emissions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 109-124, January.
    8. Dasgupta, Susmita & Lucas, Robert E.B. & Wheeler, David, 2002. "Plant size, industrial air pollution, and local incomes: evidence from Mexico and Brazil," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 365-381, May.
    9. Bluffstone, Randall, 1999. "Are the costs of pollution abatement lower in Central and Eastern Europe? Evidence from Lithuania," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 449-470, October.
    10. Foulon, Jerome & Lanoie, Paul & Laplante, Benoit, 2002. "Incentives for Pollution Control: Regulation or Information?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 169-187, July.
    11. Simeon Djankov, 1999. "Ownership Structure and Enterprise Restructuring in Six Newly Independent States," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 41(1), pages 75-95, April.
    12. Keane, Michael P & Runkle, David E, 1992. "On the Estimation of Panel-Data Models with Serial Correlation When Instruments Are Not Strictly Exogenous," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, January.
    13. Judson, Ruth A. & Owen, Ann L., 1999. "Estimating dynamic panel data models: a guide for macroeconomists," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 9-15, October.
    14. Khanna, Madhu & Quimio, Wilma Rose H. & Bojilova, Dora, 1998. "Toxics Release Information: A Policy Tool for Environmental Protection," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 243-266, November.
    15. Khanna, Madhu & Damon, Lisa A., 1999. "EPA's Voluntary 33/50 Program: Impact on Toxic Releases and Economic Performance of Firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, January.
    16. Suits, Daniel B, 1984. "Dummy Variables: Mechanics v. Interpretation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(1), pages 177-180, February.
    17. Keane, Michael P & Runkle, David E, 1992. "On the Estimation of Panel-Data Models with Serial Correlation When Instruments Are Not Strictly Exogenous: Reply," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 10(1), pages 26-29, January.
    18. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    19. Michael Keane & Timothy Neal, 2016. "The Keane and Runkle estimator for panel-data models with serial correlation and instruments that are not strictly exogenous," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 16(3), pages 523-549, September.
    20. Seema Arora & Timothy N. Cason, 1996. "Why Do Firms Volunteer to Exceed Environmental Regulations? Understanding Participation in EPA's 33/50 Program," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 72(4), pages 413-432.
    21. George J. Stigler, 1951. "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 185-185.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kamil Galuscak & Lubomir Lizal, 2011. "The Impact of Capital Measurement Error Correction on Firm-Level Production Function Estimation," Working Papers 2011/09, Czech National Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Earnhart, Dietrich & Lizal, Lubomir, 2006. "Effects of ownership and financial performance on corporate environmental performance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 111-129, March.
    2. Dietrich Earnhart & Lubomir Lizal, 2002. "Effects of Ownership and Financial Status on Corporate Environmental Performance," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp203, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    3. Dietrich Earnhart & Lubomir Lizal, 2007. "Does Better Environmental Performance Affect Revenues, Cost, or Both? Evidence From a Transition Economy," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp856, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    4. Ziegler, Andreas & Schröder, Michael, 2006. "What Determines the Inclusion in a Sustainability Stock Index? A Panel Data Analysis for European Companies," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-041, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Hsiao, Cheng & Hashem Pesaran, M. & Kamil Tahmiscioglu, A., 2002. "Maximum likelihood estimation of fixed effects dynamic panel data models covering short time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 107-150, July.
    6. Stefan Ambec & Paul Lanoie, 2007. "When and Why Does It Pay To Be Green?," CIRANO Working Papers 2007s-20, CIRANO.
    7. Randall K. Filer & Jan Hanousek & Nauro F. Campos, 1999. "Do Stock Markets Promote Economic Growth," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 267, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    8. Madhu Khanna, 2001. "Non‐Mandatory Approaches to Environmental Protection," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 291-324, July.
    9. Seong‐gin Moon & Suho Bae & Moon‐Gi Jeong, 2014. "Corporate Sustainability and Economic Performance: an Empirical Analysis of a Voluntary Environmental Program in the USA," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(8), pages 534-546, December.
    10. Badi H. Baltagi, 2021. "Dynamic Panel Data Models," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, in: Econometric Analysis of Panel Data, edition 6, chapter 0, pages 187-228, Springer.
    11. Böhringer, Christoph & Moslener, Ulf & Oberndorfer, Ulrich & Ziegler, Andreas, 2012. "Clean and productive? Empirical evidence from the German manufacturing industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 442-451.
    12. Blackman, Allen, 2009. "Alternative Pollution Control Policies in Developing Countries: Informal, Informational, and Voluntary," RFF Working Paper Series dp-09-10, Resources for the Future.
    13. Devdatta Ray & Mikael Linden, 2020. "Health expenditure, longevity, and child mortality: dynamic panel data approach with global data," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 99-119, March.
    14. Rinaldo Brau & C. Carraro, 2004. "The economic analysis of voluntary approaches to environmental protection. A survey," Working Paper CRENoS 200420, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    15. Dierk Herzer & Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann D. & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Sebastian Vollmer, "undated". "On Distributed Lags in Dynamic Panel Data Models: Evidence from Market Shares," Working Papers on International Economics and Finance 06-05, FEDEA.
    16. Anna Alberini & Kathleen Segerson, 2002. "Assessing Voluntary Programs to Improve Environmental Quality," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 22(1), pages 157-184, June.
    17. Afsah, Shakeb & Blackman, Allen & Ratunanda, Damayanti, 2000. "How Do Public Disclosure Pollution Control Programs Work? Evidence from Indonesia," Discussion Papers 10515, Resources for the Future.
    18. Ziegler, Andreas & Schröder, Michael, 2010. "What determines the inclusion in a sustainability stock index?: A panel data analysis for european firms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 848-856, February.
    19. Nicole Darnall & Joann Carmin, 2005. "Greener and cleaner? The signaling accuracy of U.S. voluntary environmental programs," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 38(2), pages 71-90, September.
    20. Saha, Shrawantee & Mohr, Robert D., 2013. "Media attention and the Toxics Release Inventory," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 284-291.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Czech Republic; environmental protection; pollution; production; economies of scale.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cer:papers:wp405. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Lucie Vasiljevova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eiacacz.html .

    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.