IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/rffdps/10531.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Community Characteristics Determine Environmental Outcomes? Evidence from the Toxics Release Inventory

Author

Listed:
  • Arora, Seema
  • Cason, Timothy N.

Abstract

This research uses neighborhood characteristics (at the zipcode level) to explain changes in toxic releases between 1990 and 1993. It combines the Toxics Release Inventory data with demographic data from the 1990 US Census. We first analyze the location of manufacturing facilities in a particular neighborhood using a sample selection model, and then attribute changes in the level of emissions between 1990 and 1993 to the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the neighborhood in 1990. The results indicate that variables likely to affect the propensity for communities to engage in political action significantly influence environmental performance. Economic characteristics of neighborhoods (such as income levels and unemployment) also affect changes in releases. Release changes in the Southeastern US exhibit a pattern consistent with racial injustice.

Suggested Citation

  • Arora, Seema & Cason, Timothy N., 1996. "Do Community Characteristics Determine Environmental Outcomes? Evidence from the Toxics Release Inventory," Discussion Papers 10531, Resources for the Future.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:rffdps:10531
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.10531
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/10531/files/dp970012.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.10531?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arora Seema & Cason Timothy N., 1995. "An Experiment in Voluntary Environmental Regulation: Participation in EPA's 33/50 Program," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 271-286, May.
    2. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    3. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    4. Douglas Anderton & Andy Anderson & John Oakes & Michael Fraser, 1994. "Environmental Equity: The Demographics of Dumping," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(2), pages 229-248, May.
    5. Seema Arora & Timothy N. Cason, 1996. "Why Do Firms Volunteer to Exceed Environmental Regulations? Understanding Participation in EPA's 33/50 Program," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 72(4), pages 413-432.
    6. Pargal, Sheoli & Wheeler, David, 1995. "Informal regulation of industrial pollution in developing countries : evidence from Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1416, The World Bank.
    7. James T. Hamilton, 1995. "Testing for environmental racism: Prejudice, profits, political power?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(1), pages 107-132.
    8. Kahn, Matthew E & Matsusaka, John G, 1997. "Demand for Environmental Goods: Evidence from Voting Patterns on California Initiatives," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(1), pages 137-173, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Shelby Gerking, 1998. "Spatial economic aspects of the environment and environmental policy: New directions for research," ERSA conference papers ersa98p384, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Paroma Sanyal & Nidhiya Menon, 2004. "Labor Regulations and Plant Location Choice: Evidence From India," Industrial Organization 0403007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Lucie Laurian, 2008. "Environmental Injustice in France," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 55-79.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seema Arora & Timothy N. Cason, 1998. "Do Community Characteristics Influence Environmental Outcomes?: Evidence from the Toxics Release Inventory," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 1, pages 413-453, November.
    2. Seema Arora & Timothy N. Cason, 1999. "Do Community Characteristics Influence Environmental Outcomes? Evidence from the Toxics Release Inventory," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(4), pages 691-716, April.
    3. Saha, Shrawantee & Mohr, Robert D., 2013. "Media attention and the Toxics Release Inventory," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 284-291.
    4. Earnhart, Dietrich & Lízal, Lubomír, 2002. "Effects of Ownership and Financial Status on Corporate Environmental Performance," CEPR Discussion Papers 3557, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Earnhart, Dietrich & Lizal, Lubomir, 2006. "Effects of ownership and financial performance on corporate environmental performance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 111-129, March.
    6. Dietrich Earnhart & Lubomir Lizal, 2007. "Does Better Environmental Performance Affect Revenues, Cost, or Both? Evidence From a Transition Economy," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp856, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    7. Paul W. Miller & Barry R. Chiswick, 2002. "Immigrant earnings: Language skills, linguistic concentrations and the business cycle," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(1), pages 31-57.
    8. Son K. Lam & Thomas E. DeCarlo & Ashish Sharma, 2019. "Salesperson ambidexterity in customer engagement: do customer base characteristics matter?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 659-680, July.
    9. Minguez, Ana & Javier Sese, F., 2022. "Why do you want a relationship, anyway? Consent to receive marketing communications and donors’ willingness to engage with nonprofits," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 356-367.
    10. Stolowy, Hervé & Jeanjean, Thomas & Erkens, Michael, 2011. "The economic consequences of increasing the international visibility of financial reports," HEC Research Papers Series 957, HEC Paris.
    11. Kube, Roland & von Graevenitz, Kathrine & Löschel, Andreas & Massier, Philipp, 2019. "Do voluntary environmental programs reduce emissions? EMAS in the German manufacturing sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).
    12. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Szilagyi, P.G., 2009. "Shareholder Activism through the Proxy Process," Other publications TiSEM cc25d736-2965-4511-b100-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Robert D. J. Anderson, 2008. "US Consumer Inflation Expectations: Evidence Regarding Learning, Accuracy and Demographics," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 99, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    14. Zhang, Yeqing & Zhang, Xueyong, 2020. "Patent growth and the long-run performance of VC-backed IPOs," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 33-47.
    15. P.W. Miller & S. Rummery, 1989. "Gender Wage Discrimination in Australia: A reassessment," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 89-21, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    16. Marcus Asplund, 2000. "What Fraction of a Capital Investment is Sunk Costs?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 287-304, September.
    17. Peter Cziraki & Luc Renneboog & Peter G. Szilagyi, 2010. "Shareholder Activism through Proxy Proposals: The European Perspective," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(5), pages 738-777, November.
    18. Ciccotello, Conrad S & Hornyak, Martin J & Piwowar, Michael S, 2004. "Research and Development Alliances: Evidence from a Federal Contracts Repository," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(1), pages 123-166, April.
    19. Christensen, Björn, 2002. "Reservation wages, offered wages, and unemployment duration: new empirical evidence," Kiel Working Papers 1095, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. William Bowen & Mark Atlas & Sugie Lee, 2009. "Industrial agglomeration and the regional scientific explanation of perceived environmental injustice," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1013-1031, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:rffdps:10531. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rffffus.html .

    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.