Addressing Environmental Justice through In-Kind Court Settlements
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 16,
no. 1, February 2024
(pp. 415-46)
Abstract
In US environmental court cases, a cash penalty can be mitigated if a defendant volunteers to undertake an in-kind project, such as retrofitting school buses or building a public park. A goal of the policy is to address environmental justice concerns for low-income and minority populations, yet the historical record shows in-kind settlements most likely occur in cases involving high-income, majority-White communities. A choice experiment reveals that the public prefers in-kind settlements over cash, and a randomized survey reveals in-kind settlements improve the public's view of a violating firm, consistent with our finding of positive stock market reactions to in-kind settlements.Citation
Campa, Pamela, and Lucija Muehlenbachs. 2024. "Addressing Environmental Justice through In-Kind Court Settlements." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 16 (1): 415-46. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210432Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- H23 Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- K32 Environmental, Energy, Health, and Safety Law
- Q53 Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
- Q58 Environmental Economics: Government Policy
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