There has been a recent economic literature arguing that international environmental agreements (IEAs) can have no real effect, on account of their voluntary and self-enforcing nature. This literature concludes that the terms of IEAs are the codification of the noncooperative equilibrium, and...

The problem of intentional environmental harms is discussed as the combined consequence of limited liability laws and specific capital structures. When the conditions are “right”, then the option of planned liquidation is optimal for certain types of firms. These firms are typified by...