Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:43:48.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing U.S. State Susceptibility to Environmental Regulatory Competition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

David M. Konisky
David M. Konisky*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article, I examine the environmental race-to-the-bottom argument by studying whether state susceptibility to interstate economic competition helps explain which U.S. states engage in environmental regulatory competition. Specifically, I create a susceptibility index using four state economic attributes: overall growth, unemployment, manufacturing growth, and manufacturing employment. Studying state enforcement of federal environmental programs, I find little evidence that states, which are theoretically more susceptible to interstate economic competition are more likely to respond strategically to the regulatory behavior of economic competitor states. These results cast doubt on the idea that the environmental regulatory competition predicted by race-to-the-bottom theory is mediated by intrastate economic conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , Winter 2009 , pp. 404 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anselin, Luc. 1988. Spatial Econometrics: Methods and Models. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basinger, Scott J., and Hallerberg, Mark. 2004. “Remodeling the Competition for Capital: How Domestic Politics Erases the Race to the Bottom.” American Political Science Review 98:261–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, Christopher F., Schaffer, Mark E., and Stillman, Steven. 2003. “Instrumental Variables and GMM: Estimation and Testing.” Boston College Department of Economics Working Paper No. 545. February.Google Scholar
Becker, Randy, and Henderson, Vernon. 2000. “Effects of Air Quality Regulations on Polluting Industries.” Journal of Political Economy 108:379–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, A. Colin, and Trivedi, Pravin K.. 1998. Regression Analysis of Count Data. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crone, Theodore M. 1998/1999. “Using State Indexes to Define Economic Regions in the U.S.” Journal of Economic and Social Measurement 25:259–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coursey, Don. 1992. “The Demand for Environmental Quality.” John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, December.Google Scholar
Davis, Charles, and Davis, Sandra K.. 1999. “State Enforcement of the Federal Hazardous Waste Program.” Polity 31:450–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, Kirsten H. 1997. “State Environmental Standard-Setting: Is There a ‘Race’ and Is It to the Bottom'?” Hastings Law Journal 48:271–398.Google Scholar
Feiock, Richard, and Rowland, C. K.. 1990. “Environmental Regulation and Economic Development: The Movement of Chemical Production Among States.” Western Political Quarterly 43:561–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischel, William A. 1975. “Fiscal and Environmental Considerations in the Location of Firms in Suburban Communities,” In Fiscal Zoning and Land Use Controls, eds. Mills, Edwin S. and Oates, Wallace E.. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.Google Scholar
Franzese, Robert J., and Hays, Jude C.. 2007. “Spatial Econometric Models of Cross-Sectional Interdependence in Political Science Panel and Time-Series-Cross-Section Data.” Political Analysis 15:140–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredriksson, Per G., and Millimet, Daniel L.. 2002a. “Is There a ‘California Effect’ in US Environmental Policymaking?” Regional Science and Urban Economics 32:737–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredriksson, Per G., and Millimet, Daniel L.. 2002b. “Strategic Interaction and the Determinants of Environmental Policy across U.S. States.” Journal of Urban Economics 51:101–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, Wayne B., and Deily, Mary E.. 1996. “Compliance and Enforcement: Air Pollution Regulation in the U.S. Steel Industry.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 31:96–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groseclose, Tim, Levitt, Steven D., and Snyder, James M. Jr. 1999. “Comparing Interest Group Scores Across Time and Chambers: Adjusted ADA Scores for the U.S. Congress.” American Political Science Review 93:33–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, Jinyong, and Hausman, Jerry. 2002. “A New Specification Test for the Validity of Instrumental Variables.” Econometrica 70:163–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Kathryn. 2006. “Provincial Interdependence: Concepts and Theories.” In Racing to the Bottom? Provincial Interdependence in the Canadian Federation, ed. Harrison, Kathryn. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Helland, Eric. 1998a. “Environmental Protection in the Federalist System: The Political Economy of NPDES Inspections.” Economic Inquiry 36:305–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helland, Eric. 1998b. “The Revealed Preferences of State EPAs: Stringency, Enforcement, and Substitution.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 35:242–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, J. Vernon. 1996. “Effects of Air Quality Regulation.” American Economic Review 86:789–813.Google Scholar
Kamieniecki, Sheldon. 1995. “Political Parties and Environmental Policy.” In Environmental Politics & Policy: Theories and Evidence, ed. Lester, James P.. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Kelejian, Harry H., and Prucha, Ingmar R.. 1998. “A Generalized Spatial Two-Stage Least Squares Procedure for Estimating a Spatial Autoregressive Model with Autoregressive Disturbances.” Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics 17:99–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klarner, Carl. 2008. State Partisan Balance, 1959–2004 File. http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/SPPQ/journal_datasets/klarner.shtml (18 January 2009).Google Scholar
Konisky, David M. 2007. “Regulatory Competition and Environmental Enforcement: Is There a Race to the Bottom?” American Journal of Political Science 51:854–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konisky, David M. 2008. “Regulator Attitudes and the Environmental Race to the Bottom Argument.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 18:321–44.Google Scholar
Levinson, Arik. 1996. “Environmental Regulations and Industry Location: International and Domestic Evidence.” In Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisites for Free Trade? Eds., Bhagwati, Jagdish N. and Hudec, Robert E.. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, Arik. 2003. “Environmental Regulatory Competition: A Status Report and Some New Evidence.” National Tax Journal 56:91–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
List, John, Warren McHone, W., and Millimet, Daniel L.. 2003. “Effects of Air Quality Regulation on the Destination Choice of Relocating Plants.” Oxford Economic Papers 55:657–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magat, Wesley A., and Kip Viscusi, W.. 1990. “Effectiveness of the EPA's Regulatory Enforcement: The Case of Industrial Effluent Standards.” The Journal of Law and Economics 33:331–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markusen, James R., Morey, Edward R., and Olewiler, Nancy. 1995. “Competition in Regional Environmental Policies when Plant Locations are Endogenous.” Journal of Public Economics 56:55–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mintz, Joel A. 1995. Enforcement at the EPA: High Stakes and Hard Choices. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Nadeau, Louis W. 1997. “EPA Effectiveness at Reducing the Duration of Plant-Level Noncompliance.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 34:54–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, Wallace E. 1972. Fiscal Federalism. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanich.Google Scholar
Oates, Wallace E., and Schwab, Robert M.. 1988. “Economic Competition among Jurisdictions: Efficiency Enhancing or Distortion Inducing.” Journal of Public Economics 35:333–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potoski, Matthew. 2001. “Clean Air Federalism: Do States Race to the Bottom?” Public Administration Review 61:335–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rechtschaffen, Clifford, and Markell, David L.. 2003. Reinventing Environmental Enforcement & the State/Federal Relationship. Washington, DC: Environmental Law Institute.Google Scholar
Shea, John. 1997. “Instrument Relevance in Multivariate Linear Models: A Simple Measure.” Review of Economics and Statistics 79:348–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipan, Charles. R., and Lowry, William R.. 2001. “Environmental Policy and Party Divergence in Congress.” Political Research Quarterly 54:245–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sigman, Hilary. 2003. “Letting States Do the Dirty Work: State Responsibility for Federal Environmental Regulation.” National Tax Journal 56:107–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiebout, Charles M. 1956. “A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures.” Journal of Political Economy 64:416–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, David. 1995. Trading Up: Consumer and Environmental Regulation in a Global Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wellisch, Dietmar. 2000. Theory of Public Finance in a Federal State. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Michelle J. 1975. “Firm Location in a Zoned Metropolitan Area.” In Fiscal Zoning and Land Use Controls, eds. Mills, Edwin S. and Oates, Wallace E.. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.Google Scholar
Wilson, John D. 1999. “Theories of Tax Competition.” National Tax Journal 52:269–304.Google Scholar
Wood, B. Dan. 1991. “Federalism and Policy Responsiveness: The Clean Air Case.” The Journal of Politics 53:851–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, Neal D. 2006. “Interstate Competition and Environmental Regulation: A Test of the Race to the Bottom Thesis.” Social Science Quarterly 86:792–811.Google Scholar