Description:

The objectives of this research are to investigate behavioral and organizational questions associated with environmental regulation of firms, and to test specifically whether a bottom-up approach that highlights principal-agent problems offers new insights and empirical validity. This project will investigate key questions in the new field of industrial ecology using an innovative, agent-based modeling approach. Agent-based computer simulation modeling has matured in recent years to the point that it can provide a safe laboratory for investigating how economic agents interact with one another and their environment, and for exploring alternative organizational structures and contracting arrangements that might reduce adverse impacts on the natural environment.

URLs/Downloads:

2003 Progress Report

URL

2002 Progress Report

Final Progress Report

2004 Progress Report

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT( ABSTRACT )

Start Date:07/01/2002

Completion Date:06/30/2005

Record ID: 57541

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Related Organizations:

Role :OWNER

Organization Name :RUTGERS UNIVERSITY - NEW BRUNSWICK

Mailing Address :New Brunswick Campus

Citation :New Brunswick

State :NJ

Zip Code :8903

Project Information:

Approach :

The project includes the following tasks: (1) create an empirical foundation for models by exploiting the New Jersey hazardous chemical Release and Pollution Prevention Report (RPPR) listing environmental release, waste transfer, throughput, and pollution prevention progress information; coupled with in-depth case studies of several respondent firms to document operating histories and organizational parameters; (2) develop a general multi-agent representation of a single-facility industrial firm; (3) derive initial conditions of specific models from the case study evidence, drive the models using exogenous conditions identified in the case studies, and validate the models against outcomes from the case studies; (4) adapt the generic model and selected specific instantiations to the case of the branch plant (vertical relationships within multi-facility firms); and in a more idealized manner, (5) insert the generic model and selected specific instantiations into the supply chain; and (6) insert the generic model and selected specific instantiations into a competitive sector.

Cost :$334,146.00

Research Component :Economics and Decision Sciences

Project IDs:

ID Code :R829688

Project type :EPA Grant