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Monitoring and enforcement of environmental regulations. Lessons from a natural field experiment in Norway

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Abstract

Relying on a small natural field experiment with random assignment of treatments, I estimate effects of three core elements of most monitoring and enforcement practices: self-reporting, audit frequency and specific deterrence. I find evidence of evasive reporting of violations in self-audits, as more violations are detected in on-site audits than in self-audits. Announcing the increased audit frequency has no effect on compliance, but an audit raises the firm's subsequent compliance substantially.

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  • Kjetil Telle, 2012. "Monitoring and enforcement of environmental regulations. Lessons from a natural field experiment in Norway," Discussion Papers 680, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssb:dispap:680
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    Cited by:

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    3. Muralitharan Paramasua & Evelyn S. Devadason & Pardis Moslemzadeh Tehrani, 2023. "Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Market-based Instruments and Trade Policies for Environmental Goods: Evidence from Malaysia," Millennial Asia, , vol. 14(4), pages 480-508, December.
    4. Dur, Robert & Vollaard, Ben, 2019. "Salience of law enforcement: A field experiment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 208-220.
    5. Herzing, Mathias & Jacobsson, Adam, 2019. "Measuring the effects of feedback from inspections on cleanliness in Swedish pre-schools – A field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-9.
    6. D'Amato, Alessio & Mazzanti, Massimiliano & Nicolli, Francesco & Zoli, Mariangela, 2018. "Illegal waste disposal: Enforcement actions and decentralized environmental policy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 56-65.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    environmental regulation; enforcement; EPA; natural field experiment; random assignment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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