ENVIRONMENTAL INSPECTIONS AND EMISSIONS OF THE PULP AND PAPER-INDUSTRY IN QUEBEC

Although it has long been recognized that monitoring and enforcement p roblems are an important pitfall of environmental regulation, little e mpirical work has been done on the impact of current monitoring strate gies on pollution emissions. The purpose of this study is to measure t he impact of inspections on the self-reported emissions levels of plan ts in the pulp and paper industry in Quebec. It extends in numerous wa ys the empirical framework developed by Magat and Viscusi (J. Law. Eco nom. 33, 331-360 (1990)), who analyzed the impact of inspections in th e American pulp and paper industry. In particular, our results suggest that both inspections and the threat of an inspection have a strong n egative impact on pollution emissions. Furthermore, we find that inspe ctions also induce more frequent self-reporting from the industry. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.