Events

Prof. Grace Fan
Assistant Professor of Accounting
School of Accountancy
Singapore Management University

Does transparency of environmental justice related information enhance environmental justice? During 2010 to 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed and launched EJScreen, an online mapping tool that presents environmental justice information across the United States. This tool takes previously publicly available but dispersed data regarding a location’s demographic and environmental information, makes them more accessible for users, and combines them into indices, thereby helping the public identify locations with potential EJ concerns. Using a difference-in-difference estimation approach around both the internal and public launch of EJScreen, we hypothesize and find a greater reduction in toxic chemical releases (GHG emissions) at facilities located in areas with higher EJ concerns compared to other facilities after the internal (public) launch of EJScreen, suggesting that both regulatory and public scrutiny play a role in shaping firms’ pollution behavior. Moreover, the GHG emission reduction effects are stronger for firms located in high EJ concern areas with more public and media attention to environmental issues, and where there is a lack of existing mechanism in place that supports environmental justice. We complement our results using a stacked difference-in-differences analysis and Regression Discontinuity Design by exploring the launch of a similar policy tool, CalEnviroScreen, and find consistent results. Overall, we find that enhanced transparency of environmental justice information attracts increased scrutiny from both regulators and other stakeholders, leading to improved environmental outcomes in vulnerable areas. The findings of the paper have the potential to provide important policy implications for the ongoing efforts of the U.S. government in enhancing environmental justice.