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Is Pollution Value-Maximizing? The DuPont Case

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  • Zingales, Luigi
  • Shapira, Roy

Abstract

DuPont, one of the most respectable U.S. companies, caused environmental damage that ended up costing the company around a billion dollars. By using internal company documents disclosed in trials we rule out the possibilities that this bad outcome was due to ignorance, an unexpected realization, or a problem of bad governance. The documents rather suggest that the harmful pollution was a rational decision: under reasonable probabilities of detection, polluting was ex-ante optimal from the company’s perspective, albeit a very harmful decision from a societal perspective. We then examine why different mechanisms of control – legal liability, regulation, and reputation – all failed to deter socially harmful behavior. One common reason for the failures of deterrence mechanisms is that the company controls most of the information and its release. We then sketch potential ways to mitigate this problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Zingales, Luigi & Shapira, Roy, 2017. "Is Pollution Value-Maximizing? The DuPont Case," CEPR Discussion Papers 12323, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12323
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pollution; Firm objectives; Environmental regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm

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