The Enron Story and Environmental Policy

Abstract:     
The Collapse of Enron provides and interesting lens through which to view environmental regulation. The selective alteration of regulations governing accounting and the offering of financial advice indicates that when business entities have an incentive to cheat, it is more likely that they will. The same applies to environmental regulation. Environmental regulations cannot count on self enforcement if it goes against other incentives of business activity.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 20

Keywords: environment, environmental policy, regulation, economic incentives, Enron, accounting, self-enforcement

JEL Classification: D21, K23, K42, L51

Accepted Paper Series