This paper examines the role of liability for past environmental contamination in the privatization processes of Central and Eastern Europe. The theoretical section establishes a link between a risk-averse investor’s amount of information regarding the extent of past environmental...

This paper analyzes the effects of ownership structure on corporate environmental performance and examines the link from financial performance to environmental performance in a transition economy. In particular, it analyzes these ownership effects and this performance link using an unbalanced...

During the 1990s air pollutant emissions declined dramatically in many of the transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe including the Czech Republic. Various reasons may explain these reductions, such as (1) a decline in production, (2) the exit of older, more polluting firms, along...

This study explores the specific deterrence generated by punishment in the context of regulatory violations with a focus on the distinction between upward revisions to future punishment parameters – likelihood and severity – and the experience of being penalized. In order to avoid...

According to the standard model of enforcement, both the certainty of punishment and the severity of punishment influence deterrence. Discerning the separate effects of these two components on behavior, however, is difficult especially because it requires constructing measures of the beliefs of...

The Porter hypothesis asserts that properly designed environmental regulation motivates firms to innovate, which ultimately improves profitability. In this study, we test empirically the Porter hypothesis and the competing hypothesis that regulation undermines profitability (“costly regulation...

This study explores the specific deterrence generated by punishment in the context of regulatory violations with a focus on the distinction between upward revisions to future punishment parameters—likelihood and severity—and the experience of being penalized. In order to avoid the pitfalls...

This study explores the effect of environmental self-audits (“audits”), which represent an important type of environmental management system practice, on the extent of facilities’ compliance with wastewater discharge limits. Theoretically, audits may (1) improve compliance by enhancing the...

Effluent limits are frequently based on a uniform emission standard, which applies to all polluting facilities within a single industry. However, the implementation of many environmental protection laws does not lead to uniform effluent limits due to considerations of local environmental...