Download or read book Pollution Abatement Costs Regulation and Plant level Productivity written by Wayne B. Gray and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We analyze the connection between productivity, pollution abatement expenditures, and other measures of environmental regulation for plants in three industries (paper, oil, and steel). We examine data from 1979 to 1990, considering both total factor productivity levels and growth rates. Plants with higher abatement cost levels have significantly lower productivity levels. The magnitude of the impact is somewhat larger than expected: $1 greater abatement costs appears to be associated with the equivalent of $1.74 in lower productivity for paper mills, $1.35 for oil refineries, and $3.28 for steel mills. However, these results apply only to variation across plants in productivity levels. Estimates looking at productivity variation within plants over time, or estimates using productivity growth rates show a smaller (and insignificant) relationship between abatement costs and productivity. Other measures of environmental regulation faced by the plants (compliance status, enforcement activity, and emissions) are not significantly related to productivity.

Download or read book Pollution Abatement Expenditures and Plant level Productivity written by Ronald J. Shadbegian and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this paper we investigate the impact of environmental regulation on productivity using a Cobb-Douglas production function framework. Estimating the effects of regulation on productivity can be done with a top-down approach using data for broad sectors of the economy, or a more disaggregated bottom-up approach. Our study follows a bottom-up approach using data from the U.S. paper, steel, and oil industries. We measure environmental regulation using plant-level information on pollution abatement expenditures, which allows us to distinguish between productive and abatement expenditures on each input. We use annual Census Bureau information (1979-1990) on output, labor, capital, and material inputs, and pollution abatement operating costs and capital expenditures for 68 pulp and paper mills, 55 oil refineries, and 27 steel mills. Overall, our results point to the importance using detailed, disaggregated analyses, even below the industry level, when trying to model the costs of forcing plants to reduce their emissions.

Download or read book Environmental Regulation and Manufacturing Productivity at the Plant Level written by Wayne B. Gray and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We analyze the connection between productivity, pollution abatement expenditures, and other measures of environmental regulation for plants in three industries (paper, oil, and steel). We examine data from 1979 to 1985, considering, both labor and total factor productivity, both levels and growth rates, and both annual measures and averages over the period. We find a strong connection between regulation and productivity when regulation is measured by compliance costs. More regulated plants have significantly lower productivity levels and slower productivity growth rates than less regulated plants. The magnitude of the impacts are larger than expected: a $1 increase in compliance costs appears to reduce TFP by the equivalent of $3 to $4. Thus, commonly used methods of calculating the impact of regulation on productivity are substantially underestimated. Other measures of regulation (compliance status, enforcement activity, and emissions) show much less consistent results. Higher enforcement, lower compliance, and higher emissions are generally associated with lower productivity levels and slower productivity growth, but the coefficients are rarely significant.

Download or read book Local Environmental Regulation and Plant level Productivity written by Randy A. Becker and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation on the productivity of manufacturing plants in the United States. Establishment-level data from three Censuses of Manufactures are used to estimate 3-factor Cobb-Douglas production functions that include a measure of the stringency of environmental regulation faced by manufacturing plants. In contrast to previous studies, this paper examines effects on plants in all manufacturing industries, not just those in "dirty" industries. Further, this paper employs spatial-temporal variation in environmental compliance costs to identify effects, using a time-varying county-level index that is based on multiple years of establishment-level data from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey and the Annual Survey of Manufactures. Results suggest that, for the average manufacturing plant, the effect on productivity of being in a county with higher environmental compliance costs is relatively small and often not statistically significant. For the average plant, the main effect of environmental regulation may not be in the spatial and temporal dimensions.

Download or read book Plant Vintage Technology and Environmental Regulation written by Wayne B. Gray and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does the impact of environmental regulation differ by plant vintage and technology? We answer this question using annual Census Bureau information on 116 pulp and paper mills' vintage, technology, productivity, and pollution abatement operating costs for 1979-1990. We find a significant negative relationship between pollution abatement costs and productivity levels. This is due almost entirely to integrated mills (those incorporating a pulping process), where a one standard deviation increase in abatement costs is predicted to reduce productivity by 5.4 percent. Older plants appear to have lower productivity but are less sensitive to abatement costs, perhaps due to 'grandfathering' of regulations. Mills which undergo renovations are also less sensitive to abatement costs, although these vintage and renovation results are not generally significant. We find similar results using a log-linear version of a three input Cobb-Douglas production function in which we include our technology, vintage, and renovation variables. Sample calculations of the impact of pollution abatement on productivity show the importance of allowing for differences based on plant technology. In a model incorporating technology interactions we estimate that total pollution abatement costs reduce productivity levels by an average of 4.7 percent across all the plants. The comparable estimate without technology interactions is 3.3 percent, approximately 30% lower.

Download or read book Pollution Charges Community Pressure and Abatement Cost of Industrial Pollution in China written by Hua Wang and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2000 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community pressure may be as strong an incentive for industrial firms to control pollution in China as pollution levies are.

Download or read book Center for Economic Studies Discussion Paper written by and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Environmental Regulation written by John F. McEldowney and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring an original introduction by the editors, this important collection of essays explores the main issues surrounding the regulation of the environment. The expert contributors illustrate that regulating the environment in the UK is conceptually complex, involves a diverse range of institutions, techniques and methodologies and crosses geographical and national boundaries. In the USA it is more formalised, juridical, adversarial and formally dependent upon legal rules. The articles highlight the fact that despite differences in the UK and the USA's regulatory styles, environmental regulation today has much in common with both traditions.

Download or read book Economic Costs and Consequences of Environmental Regulation written by Wayne B Gray and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-01-18 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2002. How expensive is environmental regulation and how does it affect the economy? A proper understanding of the costs imposed by environmental regulation is important for policy-makers and others concerned with regulatory design. This book focuses on empirical studies of the impact of environmental regulation on the economy, exposing the reader to a variety of estimation methodologies and datasets that have been used in this area. Three basic sources provide information on the costs of environmental regulation: surveys; engineering studies; and econometric analysis. This text draws on all three in its investigation.

Download or read book Environmental Regulation Abatement and Productivity written by Shital Sharma and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research studies the link between environmental regulation and plant level productivity in two U.S. manufacturing industries: pulp and paper mills and oil refineries using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models. Data on abatement spending, emissions and abated emissions are used in different DEA models to study plant productivity outcomes when accounting for abatement spending or emissions regulations. Results indicate that pulp and paper mills and oil refineries in the U.S. suffered decreases in productivity due to pollution abatement activities from 1974 to 2000. These losses in productivity are substantial but have been slowly trending downwards even when the regulations have tended to become more stringent and emission of pollutants has declined suggesting that the best practice has shifted over time. Results also show that the reported abatement expenditures are not able to explain all the losses arising out of regulation suggesting that these abatement expenditures are consistently under-reported.

Download or read book The Costs and Benefits of Environmental Regulation written by Imad A. Moosa and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: øThe authors present an extensive survey of the empirical evidence on the determinants of environmental performance as well as the effects of environmental regulation on the costs of production, plant location, firm-level productivity, stock prices and

Download or read book Environmental Regulation Investment Timing and Technology Choice written by Wayne B. Gray and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We began this project interested in collecting real-world' insight about how environmental regulation affects the paper industry. Based on conversations with people in the industry and visits to paper mills, we formulated several hypotheses related to technology choice in new mills and the investment decision for existing plants. We tested these hypotheses using technology choice data for 686 paper mills and annual investment data for 116 mills. Technology choice is influenced by environmental regulation. New mills in states with strict environmental regulations are less likely to employ the more polluting technologies involving pulping. Differences between air and water pollution regulations also emerge, with the dirtiest technology in each medium avoiding those states with the strictest regulations. The magnitudes of the impacts are sizable, with a one standard deviation increase in stringency associated with several percentage point reductions in the probability of choosing a dirty technology. State regulatory stringency and plant technology have little or no effect on annual investment spending at existing plants. However, pollution abatement investment is significantly related to productive (non-abatement) investment. Plants with high abatement investment spend less on productive capital. The magnitude of the impact corresponds to nearly complete crowding out of productive investment by abatement investment. Examining investment timing, we find that abatement and productive investment tend to be concentrated in the same years, consistent with the high cost of shutting down a paper mill for renovations.

Download or read book The Cost of Air Pollution Abatement written by Raymond S. Hartman and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Study of Inter country Differences in Environmental Regulations and Environmental Control Costs written by Tongmo Suh and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Economic Impact of Pollution Control written by and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Costs of Air Quality Regulation written by Randy A. Becker and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper explores some costs associated with environmental regulation. We focus on regulation pertaining to ground-level ozone (O3) and its effects on two manufacturing industries -- industrial organic chemicals (SIC 2865-9) and miscellaneous plastic products (SIC 308). Both are major emitters of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (Nox), the chemical precursors to ozone. Using plant-level data from the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Research Database (LRD), we examine the effects of regulation on the timing and magnitudes of investments by firms and on the impact it has had on their operating costs. As an alternative way to assess costs, we also employ plant-level data from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures (PACE) survey. Analyses employing average total cost functions reveal that plants' production costs are indeed higher in (heavily-regulated) non-attainment areas relative to (less-regulated) attainment areas. This is particularly true for younger plants, consistent with the notion that regulation is most burdensome for new (rather than existing) plants. Cost estimates using PACE data generally reveal lower costs. We also find that new heavily-regulated plants start our much larger than less-regulated plants, but then do not invest as much. Among other things, this highlights the substantial fixed costs involved in obtaining expansion permits. We also discuss reasons why plants may restrict their size

Download or read book Controlling Pollution written by Shekhar Mehta and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: That is the central purpose of this pioneering study - namely, to assess the efficacy of alternative instruments for pollution abatement based both on theoretical explorations and real-life case studies. The authors begin by reviewing the existing policy regime and analysing its impact on the quality of air and water in India's cities and rivers respectively. They then proceed to assess the choice of instruments for pollution control by linking economic and environmental systems.