TY  - JOUR
AU  - Keohane,Nathaniel
AU  - Mansur,Erin T.
AU  - Voynov,Andrey
TI  - Averting Regulatory Enforcement: Evidence from New Source Review
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13512
PY  - 2007
Y2  - October 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13512
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13512.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Nathaniel Keohane
Environmental Defense Fund
E-Mail: nkeohane@environmentaldefense.org

Erin T. Mansur
Dartmouth College
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: (603) 646-2531
Fax: (603) 646-2122
E-Mail: erin.mansur@dartmouth.edu

Andrey Voynov
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
205 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511
E-Mail: andrey.voynov@aya.yale.edu
AB  - This paper explores firms' response to regulatory enforcement. New Source Review, a provision of the Clean Air Act, imposes stringent emissions limitations on significantly modified older power plants. In 1999, the EPA sued owners of 46 plants for NSR violations. We study how electricity companies respond to both the perceived threat of future action, and the action itself. A discrete choice model estimates plants likelihood of being named in lawsuits increases with large historic emissions and investments. On the eve of the lawsuits, emissions at plants with a one standard deviation greater probability of being sued fell approximately ten percent.
ER  -