Internalizing Externalities through Public Pressure: Transparency Regulation for Fracking and Water Quality

We would like to thank Wes Austin, Jenn Baka, Marianne Bertrand, Thomas Bourveau, Susan Brantley, Matthias Breuer, Thomas Covert, Oussema El Ajel, Aytekin Ertan (discussant), Michael Greenstone, Jodi Grewal, Chris Hansen, Elaine Hill (discussant), Ginger Jin, Ryan Kellogg, Mark Maffett, Sendhil Mullainathan, Max Muller (discussant), Matt Notowidigdo, Miao Liu, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Joseph Shapiro, Hongping Tan, Luigi Zingales and workshop participants at the AEA 2022 Annual Meeting, Bocconi, Ruhr-Uni Bochum, Boston College, University of Calgary, Chicago Booth Micro Lunch, Columbia Business School, EPA, FARS, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Goethe University Frankfurt, HEC Paris, Northwestern University, University of Mannheim, University of Maryland, McGill University, LMU München, London Business School, University of San Diego, University of St Gallen, Stanford University, Wharton School, Yale University Law and Economics, the UN PRI Seminar Series, the Scandinavian Accounting Research Conference 2023, the 2024 SITE conference, the Shale Gas Network Conference, and the Swiss Winter Accounting Conference for helpful comments. We also gratefully acknowledge the excellent research assistance of Patricia Breuer, Tom Kim, Igor Kuznetsov, Alessandro Maimone, Fabian Nagel, Christopher Nance, Claudia Serra, and Zirui Song. This work is supported by research funding from the Energy Initiative at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, IESE Business School, the University of Bristol Business School and the University of Padova-Fondazione Cariparo Starting Package Grant. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• online appendix

• January 10, 2023
• May 6, 2024