Incentives for pollution abatement: Regulation, regulatory threats, and non‐governmental pressures

In the last decade, voluntary efforts by firms to reduce their environmental impacts have received increasingattention from both policymakers and scholars. This article discusses polluters' incentives to reduce theirreleases. In particular, using data from Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory, it examines theimpacts of conventional regulation, threats of regulation, and non‐governmental pressures facilitated bypublic dissemination of information about pollutant releases. The vast majority of reductions reported to theinventory to date were found not to be voluntary, as has often been assumed, but are, rather, the result ofdirect regulation of a relatively small number of polluters. Strong effects of federal regulation were foundamong other sources, as well, with much weaker responses to the mere threat of regulation. However, of concernare the growth of less visible waste streams—such as land disposal and underground injection—as wellas transfers of wastes to other communities. Finally, evidence is reported that some waste streams areincreasing in toxicity, an effect that may outweigh the benefits of reductions in releases. © 2003 by theAssociation for Public Policy Analysis and Management.