Working Paper: NBER ID: w28984
Authors: Lavender Yang; Nicholas Z. Muller; Pierre Jinghong Liang
Abstract: We examine the real effects of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) on electric power plants in the United States. Starting in 2010, the GHGRP requires both the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by facilities emitting more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year to the Environmental Protection Agency and the public dissemination of the reported data in a comprehensive and accessible manner. Using a difference-in-difference research design, we find that power plants that are subject to the GHGRP reduced carbon dioxide emission rates by 7%. The effect is stronger for plants owned by publicly traded firms. We detect evidence of strategic behavior by firms that own both GHGRP plants and non-GHGRP plants. Such firms strategically reallocate emissions between plants to reduce GHGRP-disclosed emissions. We interpret this as evidence that the program is costly to the affected firms. Our results offer new evidence that public or shareholder pressure is a primary channel through which mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting programs affect firm behavior.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: G38; L21; M14; M41; Q54
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| GHGRP (Q29) | CO2 emission rates (L94) |
| GHGRP (Q29) | CO2 emission rates for publicly traded firms (L94) |
| GHGRP (Q29) | CO2 emission rates for S&P 500 firms (L94) |
| GHGRP (Q29) | strategic behavior by firms (L21) |
| strategic behavior by firms (L21) | emissions at non-disclosure plants (Q52) |