What Can Regulators Regulate? The Case of the Urban Heat Island Phenomenon

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-1994

Department

Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs

Abstract

An examination of urban warming trends in the United States offers a statistical model that points out that the urban areas cited most heavily by the Environmental Protection Agency for violating ozone standards are not the areas with the greatest warming trends. After accounting for environmental and geometric characteristics of the urban landscape, a negative relationship is found between ozone standard violations (by an urban center) and a measure for the urban area's temperature. The simultaneous system of equations also suggests that industrial firms located in these centers employ lobbyists (successfully) to minimize the degree of an EPA citation. Much of the evidence adds some support to the theory of economic regulation, the capture theory of regulation, and the rent seeking model in the public choice literature.

Publication Title

American Journal of Economics and Sociology

Volume

53

Issue

4

First Page

403

Last Page

414

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