IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v13y2012i3p1-32n3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discretion and Manipulation by Experts: Evidence from a Vehicle Emissions Policy Change

Author

Listed:
  • Pierce Lamar

    (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • Snyder Jason A.

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

Abstract

Environmental regulation seeks to limit pollution through strict emissions thresholds for existing cars, yet it remains unclear how frequently inspectors enforce these regulations and what impact test manipulation has on policy efficacy. We demonstrate (1) that there is a distinct discontinuous drop in the distribution of emissions results at the regulatory threshold (2) that when the state tightens emissions standards, over 50% of the vehicles newly at risk for failure now pass instantaneously after the regulation changes. These improvements cannot be explained by legitimate repairs but are consistent with facilities exploiting procedural discretion in order to help consumers evade the strengthened regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierce Lamar & Snyder Jason A., 2012. "Discretion and Manipulation by Experts: Evidence from a Vehicle Emissions Policy Change," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(3), pages 1-32, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:13:y:2012:i:3:p:1-32:n:3
    DOI: 10.1515/1935-1682.3246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/1935-1682.3246
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/1935-1682.3246?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. repec:cgr:cgsser:03-07 is not listed on IDEAS

    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:bpj:bejeap:v:13:y:2012:i:3:p:1-32:n:3. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    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.