Voluntary Pollution Abatement and Regulation

The Efficiency of Voluntary Pollution Abatement when Countries can

We characterize a mechanism for reducing pollution emissions in which countries, acting non-cooperatively, commit to match each others’ abatement levels and may subsequently engage in emissions quota trading. The mechanism leads to an efficient level of emissions, and if the matching abatements process includes a quota trading stage, the marginal benefits of emissions are also equalized across ...

The Efficiency of Voluntary Pollution Abatement when Countries can Commit

We characterize a mechanism for reducing pollution emissions in which countries, acting non-cooperatively, commit to match each others’ abatement levels and may subsequently engage in emissions quota trading. The mechanism leads to an efficient level of emissions, and if the matching abatements process includes a quota trading stage, the marginal benefits of emissions are also equalized across ...

Pollution regulation and abatement efforts: evidence from China

This paper empirically tests pollution abatement efforts of Chinese industries in response to pollution regulations, especially the pollution charge instrument practiced in China for about 20 years. The impacts of pollution regulation on abatement expenditures are examined for one thousand large and medium Chinese industrial polluters. The results show that plant-level expenditures on end-of-pi...

Pollution Abatement Investment When Firms Lobby Against Environmental Regulation

In this paper, we study a firm’s optimal lobbying behavior and its effect on investment in pollution abatement capital. We develop a dynamic framework where a representative firm can invest in both abatement and lobby capital in response to a possible future increase in pollution tax. We show that when the firm lobbys against the scale of the tax increase at a determined date, it should act lik...

Third Party Certification and the Effectiveness of Voluntary Pollution Abatement Programs: Evidence from Responsible Care