Incentives for Pollution Control : Regulation and Public Disclosure
An increasing number of regulators have adopted public disclosure programs to create incentives for pollution control. Previous empirical analyses of monitoring and enforcement issues have focused strictly on the impact of such traditional practice...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/02/438330/incentives-pollution-control-regulation-public-disclosure http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22332 |
| Summary: | An increasing number of regulators have
adopted public disclosure programs to create incentives for
pollution control. Previous empirical analyses of monitoring
and enforcement issues have focused strictly on the impact
of such traditional practices as monitoring (inspections)
and enforcement (fines and penalties) on polluters'
environmental performance. Other analyses have separately
focused on the impact of public disclosure programs. But can
these programs create incentives in addition to the normal
incentives of fines and penalties? The authors study the
impact of both traditional enforcement and information
strategies in the context of a single program, to gain
insights into the relative impact of traditional (fines and
penalties) and emerging (public disclosure) enforcement
strategies. Their results suggest that the public disclosure
strategy adopted by the province of British Columbia,
Canada, has a greater impact on both emission levels and
compliance status than do orders, fines, and penalties
traditionally imposed by the courts and the Ministry of the
Environment. But their results also demonstrate that
adopting stricter standards and higher penalties also
significantly affected emission levels. Policymakers, take
note: 1) The presence of strong, clear standards together
with a significant, credible penalty system sends
appropriate signals to the regulated community, which
responds by lowering pollution emissions. 2) The public
disclosure of environmental performance creates strong
additional incentives to control pollution. |
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