Coming clean and cleaning up
Subtitle: is voluntary self-reporting a signal of effective self-policing?
By: Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short
Contributors: Short, Jodi L.; Harvard Business School
Edition: Rev.
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 08-098; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 08-098.
Publisher: Harvard Business School]
Published: 2008
Place of publication: [Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 40
Subjects: Social responsibility of business; Environmental aspects; Environmental law; Compliance costs; Environmental policy
Description: As regulators increasingly embrace cooperative approaches to governance, voluntary public-private partnerships and self-regulation programs have proliferated. However, because few have been subjected to robust evaluation, little is known about whether these innovative approaches are achieving their objectives and enhancing regulatory effectiveness. In the context of a federal government program that encourages companies to voluntarily self-police and self-disclose regulatory violations, we examine how participation affects the behaviors of regulators and regulated facilities. We find that on average, facilities that committed to self-police experienced a decline in abnormal events resulting in toxic pollution, and that regulators reduced their scrutiny over self-policing facilities. Upon closer examination, we find strong evidence of these effects among facilities with clean past compliance records, but find no such evidence of among facilities with more problematic compliance histories. These findings support the theoretical promise of meaningful self-policing practices and suggest that voluntary disclosure can serve as a reliable signal of future compliance-but only among a subset of facilities.
Notes: "May 2008, revised July 2009"--Publisher's web site.

"July 27, 2009"--added t.p.

Includes bibliographical references.