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Do environmental regulations disproportionately affect small businesses? Evidence from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey

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  • Becker, Randy A.
  • Pasurka, Carl
  • Shadbegian, Ronald J.

Abstract

This paper examines whether the impact of environmental regulations differs by the size of the business. We consider the net effect of statutory, enforcement, and compliance asymmetries by estimating the relationship between plant size and pollution abatement expenditures, using establishment-level data on U.S. manufacturers from the Census Bureau's Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures (PACE) survey and from its Annual Survey of Manufactures and Census of Manufactures. We model establishments' pollution abatement operating costs (PAOC) per unit of economic activity as a function of establishment size, industry, state, and year. Our results show that PAOC intensity increases with establishment and firm size.

Suggested Citation

  • Becker, Randy A. & Pasurka, Carl & Shadbegian, Ronald J., 2013. "Do environmental regulations disproportionately affect small businesses? Evidence from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 523-538.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:66:y:2013:i:3:p:523-538
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2013.08.001
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental regulation; Costs; Business size; U.S. manufacturing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L6 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing

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