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The recovery of the U.S. manufacturing sector following the 2008-2009 economic recession coincided with a sharp drop in natural gas prices. To determine whether a causal connection in fact exists, we use confidential plant-level data for 1972-2012 to estimate the employment effects of changes in natural gas and other energy prices. Previous analyses have used aggregated data and failed to control for multiple drivers of employment dynamics, such as other input costs. We show that controlling for these factors substantially diminishes the effects of natural gas and electricity prices on manufacturing employment. Accounting for the direct effects of natural gas prices as well as the indirect effects via electricity prices, we estimate that the decline in natural gas prices between 2007 and 2012 raised overall manufacturing employment by 0.6 percent, and for gas-intensive industries, by 1.8 percent. Keywords: Energy boom, Employment effects, U.S. manufacturing, 1. INTRODUCTION Despite long-term declines in its relative share of employment and output, U.S. manufacturing has rebounded sharply from the 2008-2009 recession. In fact, this is the first recession in [...]

This paper considers how industry focused revenue rebating could be used to address competitiveness concerns arising from a unilaterally imposed carbon tax. It focuses on the use of output-based carbon [...]

The determinants of environmental regulatory activity and levels of air and water pollution for 409 US pulp and paper mills, using data for 1985-1997, are examined. Spatially lagged instrumental variables are used to control the potential endogeneity of individuals, which choose to locate near the plant.

The impact of environmental regulation on productivity is tested to identify whether it differs by plant vintage and technology. The results suggest that the difference is greatly based on plant technology and productivity at different mills.

A study was conducted to examine the influence of environmental regulation on investment decisions, in particular the technology choice of management. This investigation focused on the pulp and paper industry, a heavy polluter with a host of production technologies. Findings revealed that more environment-friendly production technologies are preferred in states with stringent environmental regulations. Moreover, abatement and productive investments are usually scheduled concurrently across existing plants. Nevertheless, those with high abatement investment have lower spending levels on productive capital.

The connection between the enforcement of air pollution regulations and the compliance behavior of US steel companies from 1980 to 1989 was studied by developing models of compliance and enforcement decisions. Firm and plant characteristics such as economies of scale, location, product mix, capacity, political power and the local labor market were also considered. It was concluded that there was a positive relationship between compliance and enforcement decisions. It was noted that larger plants were less inclined to be compliant and that firm characteristics had little effect on compliance.

A regulatory agency enforcing compliance in a declining industry might recognize that certain plants would close rather than comply, imposing large costs on the local community. Data on EPA enforcement activity in the U.S. steel industry are examined for evidence of this with a two-equation model linking EPA enforcement decisions and firms' plant-closing decisions. The results indicate that the EPA directed fewer enforcement actions toward plants with a high predicted probability of closing and plants that were major employers in their community; also, plants predicted to face relatively heavy enforcement were more likely to close.

I. Introduction During the 1970s the United States experienced a dramatic expansion in regulations designed to upgrade environmental, occupational and product safety. To improve occupational safety and health, the Occupational [...]

As chair of the Environomic Research Institute, Farid Khavari is certainly a firm believer in his topic: 'It is necessary to realize that environomics and its concepts are the ultimate [...]

The benefits and costs of regulations promoted by the EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are examined. Focus is given on the impact of such regulations on industrial productivity and on workplace health and safety. It is shown that OSHA inspections have exhibited positive impact in reducing workplace injuries. However, regulations from both agencies also affected industrial productivity., Since the early 1970s, the United States has seen a substantial increase in federal government regulation, through the establishment of several new regulatory agencies. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration [...]

We develop a model of risk assessment that incorporates assumptions from the behavioral theory of the firm into conventional expected utility models of compliance, and test the model using data on injuries and OSHA inspections for 6842 manufacturing plants between 1979 and 1985. Four hypotheses are supported-the specific deterrence effect of an inspection, the importance of lagged effects of general deterrence, the asymmetrical effects of probability and amount of penalty on injuries, and the tendency of injury rates to self-correct over a few years. The model estimates that a 10% increase in enforcement activities will reduce injuries by about 1% for large, frequently inspected firms. Prior analyses reporting lower impacts (Smith, 1979; Viscusi, 1986a) are replicated to distinguish between sampling and modeling differences. The results suggest that further compliance theory needs more detailed models of risk-assessment processes to be tested on samples of firms most affected by enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living standards are low in Eastern Kentucky; a rough area with limited economic opportunity. People migrate from this area when jobs are available in industrial centers. The first extended migration was during World War I. When the depression came, most of these people returned to the old home because of small land holdings, family ties, or the possibility of securing relief. Now, during World War II, some thirty per cent of the people have again left the region to find work. One-hall of these plan to return while the other fifty per cent prefer to reside permanently outside the area. The number who Will become permanent emigrants is important to the economic future of the Mountains. If the current migration follows the pattern of the preceding one, most of those who left during the past four years will return, when the next depression becomes acute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melioration--defined as choosing a lesser, local gain over a greater longer term gain--is a behavioral tendency that people and pigeons share. As such, the empirical occurrence of meliorating behavior has frequently been interpreted as evidence that the mechanisms of human choice violate the norms of economic rationality. In some environments, the relationship between actions and outcomes is known. In this case, the rationality of choice behavior can be evaluated in terms of how successfully it maximizes utility given knowledge of the environmental contingencies. In most complex environments, however, the relationship between actions and future outcomes is uncertain and must be learned from experience. When the difficulty of this learning challenge is taken into account, it is not evident that melioration represents suboptimal choice behavior. In the present article, we examine human performance in a sequential decision-making experiment that is known to induce meliorating behavior. In keeping with previous results using this paradigm, we find that the majority of participants in the experiment fail to adopt the optimal decision strategy and instead demonstrate a significant bias toward melioration. To explore the origins of this behavior, we develop a rational analysis (Anderson, 1990) of the learning problem facing individuals in uncertain decision environments. Our analysis demonstrates that an unbiased learner would adopt melioration as the optimal response strategy for maximizing long-term gain. We suggest that many documented cases of melioration can be reinterpreted not as irrational choice but rather as globally optimal choice under uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]