This dissertation consists of three essays that empirically investigate the role of regulatory pressures, voluntary 33/50 program and information spillover on firms0́9 environmental performance. First, we examine the extent to which participating in the 33/50 program led to a reduction in 33/50 releases. Second, we examine the extent to which program participation motivated the adoption of Pollution Prevention (P2) technology, and whether learning from peers increased the adoption of P2 technology by a facility after controlling for the effects of program participation and regulatory pressures. Last, we examine the extent to which program participation caused an increase in recycling and whether the adoption of P2 technology was inversely related to changes in recycling and releases of 33/50 chemicals. To answer these questions, we use facility-level information on program participation, toxic emissions and P2 adoption for more than 7000 facilities that were eligible for the program over the period of 1988-1995. We find that program participants had 14.8% to 23.7% higher rate of reduction in 33/50 releases than non-participants, after controlling for industry effects, time trend and other regulatory pressures. We also find that program participants on average adopted 1-1.2 more P2 technologies than non-participants for 33/50 chemicals, but did not significantly increase the number of P2 technologies adopted for other TRI chemicals. Additionally, the adoption of P2 was positively affected by information spillovers from other facilities in the same industry. Although program participants adopted more P2 technologies for 33/50 chemicals, the effects of P2 on recycling and releases of 33/50 chemicals were not statistically significant.

Policymakers have encouraged pollution prevention by facilities through mandatory reporting in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and voluntary participation in environmental programs like the 33/50 program. While previous studies have focused on participation incentives and the effectiveness of such programs in reducing pollution, this paper examines the choice of pollution control methods induced by participation in the 33/50 program and whether this choice helps reduce toxic releases. Using a rich facility-specific panel data and controlling for potential correlation between program participation and pollution prevention adoption, we find that program participants were more likely to adopt pollution prevention techniques and they achieved statistically significant and larger reductions in toxic releases than were nonparticipants or non-adopters. However, participants that did not adopt pollution prevention methods increased waste recycling and did not achieve a statistically significant reduction in their toxic releases.

This paper re-evaluates the effectiveness of EPA's voluntary 33/50 program in reducing the releases of 17 high priority toxic chemicals for the 1988-1995 period. Contrary to previous studies that use program participation information at the firm level and find mixed evidence on the effectiveness of the program, our analysis uses participation status at the facility level and shows the importance of undertaking analysis at a disaggregated scale. We find the rate of reduction in releases was significantly higher for program participants than non-participants but the effect is attenuated when estimated using firm level participation data.

Protecting the environment is often not the primary objective of businesses. As the world has become more environmentally aware, the necessity of environmental regulations becomes apparent. Voluntary Environmental Programs: A Policy Perspective examines different approaches to environmental protection in business. Typically, environmental improvements on the part of industry result from government regulations that command certain action from industry and then control how well it performs. An alternative approach is voluntary environmental agreements, where firms voluntarily commit to make certain environmental improvements individually, as part of an industry association, or under the guidance of a government entity. For example, many new initiatives targeting climate change originate from companies that voluntarily commit to reduce their carbon output or footprint.

Every decision about energy involves its price and cost. The price of gasoline and the cost of buying from foreign producers; the price of nuclear and hydroelectricity and the costs to our ecosystems; the price of electricity from coal-fired plants and the cost to the atmosphere. Giving life to inventions, lifestyle changes, geopolitical shifts, and things in-between, energy economics is of high interest to Academia, Corporations and Governments. For economists, energy economics is one of three subdisciplines which, taken together, compose an economic approach to the exploitation and preservation of natural resources: energy economics, which focuses on energy-related subjects such as renewable energy, hydropower, nuclear power, and the political economy of energy resource economics, which covers subjects in land and water use, such as mining, fisheries, agriculture, and forests environmental economics, which takes a broader view of natural resources through economic concepts such as risk, valuation, regulation, and distribution Although the three are closely related, they are not often presented as an integrated whole. This Encyclopedia has done just that by unifying these fields into a high-quality and unique overview. The only reference work that codifies the relationships among the three subdisciplines: energy economics, resource economics and environmental economics. Understanding these relationships just became simpler! Nobel Prize Winning Editor-in-Chief (joint recipient 2007 Peace Prize), Jason Shogren, has demonstrated excellent team work again, by coordinating and steering his Editorial Board to produce a cohesive work that guides the user seamlessly through the diverse topics This work contains in equal parts information from and about business, academic, and government perspectives and is intended to serve as a tool for unifying and systematizing research and analysis in business, universities, and government