Journal
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
Volume 56, Issue 2, Pages 117-130Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2008.03.002
Keywords
regulation; information disclosure; water quality; right-to-know; program evaluation; difference-in-differences
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Information disclosure regulations are increasingly common, but their effects on the behavior of regulated firms are unclear. The 1996 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act mandated that community drinking water suppliers issue to customers annual consumer confidence reports (CCRs), containing information on violations of drinking water regulations and on observed contaminant levels. We examine the impact of mandatory information provision on drinking water violations by 517 community water systems in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1990 to 2003. Results suggest that larger utilities required to mail CCRs directly to customers reduced total violations by between 30% and 44% as a result of this policy, and reduced the more severe health violations by 40-57%. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available