RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 What Drives Participation in State Voluntary Cleanup Programs? Evidence from Oregon
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 785
OP 799
DO 10.3368/le.86.4.785
VO 86
IS 4
A1 Blackman, Allen
A1 Darley, Sarah
A1 Lyon, Thomas P.
A1 Wernstedt, Kris
YR 2010
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/86/4/785.abstract
AB Virtually all U.S. states have now created voluntary cleanup programs (VCPs), offering liability relief and other incentives for responsible parties to remediate contaminated sites. We use a multinomial probit model to analyze participation in Oregon’s two VCPs. In contrast to previous VCP research, we find that these programs attract sites with significant contamination, not just clean ones. Furthermore, we find that regulatory pressure—in particular, the public listing of contaminated sites—drives participation. These findings imply Oregon has been able to spur voluntary remediation via public disclosure, a result that comports with themes in the literature on voluntary environmental regulation. (JEL Q53, Q58)