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Environmental Accidents Under Moral Hazard and Limited Firm Liability

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  • Strand, J.

Abstract

We study optimal government policy when firms' operations involve a risk of a large environmental accident, firms do not have sufficient assets to cover such costs, and the risk is affected by firms' efforts which are unobservable to outsiders. When firms' profits and government revenues have equal weights in the social welfare function, a first best can be implemented and requires that the firm be subsidized heavily when operating with no accident, and all its assets confiscated in the event of an accident. With a lower weight on firm profits the solution is always second best, with lower subsidies to the firm, and a firm effort lower than at the first-best solution. When firm investments affect both the required accident-preventing effort for given risk and the work effort required for a given output, the first best never involves specific investment subsidies, while a second-best solution generally always does. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1994
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Strand, J., 1992. "Environmental Accidents Under Moral Hazard and Limited Firm Liability," Memorandum 22/1992, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:1992_022
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
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    8. Eirik Amundsen, 1992. "Optimal failure rates and penalty-bonus policies in the offshore petroleum sector," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(5), pages 469-489, September.
    9. Hahn, Robert W, 1990. "The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation: Towards a Unifying Framework," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 21-47, April.
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    11. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1983. "Incentive Effects of Terminations: Applications to the Credit and Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 912-927, December.
    12. Mayshar, Joram, 1977. "Should Government Subsidize Risky Private Projects?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 20-28, March.
    13. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicolás S., 1945-, 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Working papers 1523-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    14. Robert E. Kohn, 1985. "A General Equilibrium Analysis of the Optimal Number of Firms in a Polluting Industry," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 18(2), pages 347-354, May.
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    16. Spulber, Daniel F., 1985. "Effluent regulation and long-run optimality," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 103-116, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Strand, Jon, 1999. "Efficient environmental taxation under moral hazard," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 73-88, March.
    2. Anthony Heyes, 1996. "Optimal taxation of flow pollutants when firms may also inflict catastrophic environmental damage," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Katrin Millock & David Zilberman, 2006. "Collective penalties and inducement of self-reporting," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00118778, HAL.
    4. Jakob Eberl & Darko Jus, 2012. "Evaluating policies to attain the optimal exposure to nuclear risk," RSCAS Working Papers 2012/50, European University Institute.
    5. Grajzl, Peter & Baniak, Andrzej, 2009. "Industry self-regulation, subversion of public institutions, and social control of torts," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 360-374, December.
    6. Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1995. "Regulation, moral hazard and insurance of environmental risks," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 319-336, November.
    7. Thomas Aronsson & Kenneth Backlund & Karl-Gustaf Löfgren, 1998. "Nuclear Power, Externalities and Non-Standard Pigouvian Taxes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 177-195, March.
    8. repec:hal:journl:halshs-00118778 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. van 't Veld, Klaas & Hutchinson, Emma, 2009. "Excessive spending by firms to avoid accidents: Is it a concern in practice?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 324-335, December.

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    Keywords

    environment ; enterprises ; risk;

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