Grantee Research Project Results
2004 Progress Report: Corporate Environmental Behavior: Examining the Effectiveness of Government Interventions and Voluntary Initiatives
EPA Grant Number: R831035Title: Corporate Environmental Behavior: Examining the Effectiveness of Government Interventions and Voluntary Initiatives
Investigators: Morgenstern, Richard , Pizer, Billy , Shih, Jhih-Shyang
Institution: Resources for the Future
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: June 1, 2003 through May 31, 2006
Project Period Covered by this Report: June 1, 2003 through May 31, 2004
Project Amount: $359,895
RFA: Corporate Environmental Behavior: Examining the Effectiveness of Government Interventions and Voluntary Initiatives (2002) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Justice
Objective:
Over the past decade, voluntary programs have played an increasingly important role in environmental management and pollution control. Recent plans by the government to enhance the nation's voluntary greenhouse gas registry suggest that this trend may be accelerating. Several existing voluntary programs have a track record dating back a decade or more and have been subject to only limited empirical evaluations. Among these evaluations, most rely on gross comparisons of emission outcomes between participants and nonparticipants that likely are to be biased; the decision to participate may not be random (e.g., exogenous) and, in particular, may be correlated with the outcomes. For example, firms in declining industries might be disproportionately represented among participants in a voluntary emission reduction program, but it would be inappropriate to attribute emission reductions related to an industry's decline to the voluntary program. The objective of this research project is to identify several factors influencing the success of voluntary programs. The voluntary programs to be studied include 33/50, Climate Wise, and 1605(b).
Progress Summary:
The principal activity of Year 1 of the project involved gaining approval to use the confidential Census data essential to the conduct of the research. After submitting the appropriate paperwork to the Census Bureau, and responding to extensive comments from both the U.S. Census Bureauand the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), formal approval for the use of the data was granted on December 30, 2004. We currently are negotiating contract agreements with the Bureau of the Census Bureau.
Future Activities:
We will link together a series of independent micro-datasets to integrate plant-level information on environmental performance, firm characteristics, and participation in the identified voluntary programs. The researchers will merge the Census Bureau data, including the Longitudinal Research Database, the Quarterly Financial Report, and the Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey, with reported emissions from the establishment-level Toxic Release Inventory and with firm-level emissions data from the 1605(b) Voluntary Reporting Program, as well as firm-level participation status in the 1605(b), 33/50, and Climate Wise programs. We then will conduct an econometric analysis using a created dataset.
In particular, we plan to conduct two different econometric approaches to identify program effects. The first approach is to construct a model of participation and then estimate a parametric treatment effect conditional on the observed propensity to participate. The second approach is to use a similar model of participation but instead compute the unobserved component of the decision to participate (i.e., the residual). Assuming the formation of a particular structural relationship between the outcome and this unobserved component, we estimate a consistent model of the program effect conditional on the selection error (i.e., unobserved variables). In both cases, we use the estimated outcome models to predict the outcome for all firms both when they participate in the voluntary programs and when they do not. We then average the difference to compute an average treatment effect associated with each program and model. By comparing the estimated effects across models, we expect to draw robust conclusions about the effect of voluntary programs on firm behavior, which will be valuable for refining existing programs as well as for designing new ones.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 16 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
voluntary programs, participation models, emission levels, environmental behavior, environmental performance, plant emissions, plant-level analysis, policy analysis, Longitudinal Research Database, Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey, 1605(b), 33/50, Climate Wise programs, nonrandom social programs, toxics, global climate change, corporate performance, ecology and ecosystems, economics and decisionmaking, economics and business, air pollution policy, business-led environmental management, corporate environmental behavior, decision analysis, decisionmaking emission levels, environmental compliance determinants, environmental decisionmaking, government intervention, impact of federal policy instruments, management participation, participation model, pollution prevention, economic, social, and behavioral science research program,, RFA, Scientific Discipline, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Air, climate change, Air Pollution Effects, Corporate Performance, Economics and Business, decision-making, Atmosphere, Social Science, Economics & Decision Making, environmental performance, air pollution policy, emission levels, policy analysis, environmental monitoring, impact of federal policy instruments, participation model, government intervention, plant emissions, business-led environmental management, decision analysis, decision making, environmental decision making, environmental compliance determinants, environmental behavior, management participation, pollution prevention, plant-level analysis, corporate environmental behaviorRelevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.