ISO-14001 Standard and Firms' Environmental Performance: Evidence from the U.S. Transportation Equipment Manufacturers

Prepared for Presentation at the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association and Western Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, July 31-August 2 2016

30 Pages Posted: 15 Mar 2017

See all articles by Mehdi Nemati

Mehdi Nemati

University of California, Riverside (UCR)

Yuqing Zheng

University of Kentucky - College of Agriculture - Department of Agricultural Economics

Wuyang Hu

University of Kentucky

Date Written: July 27, 2016

Abstract

Manufacturers have been increasingly relying on environmental management systems (such as ISO 14001 based ones) to comply with government regulations and reduce waste. In this paper, we investigated the impact of ISO 14001 certification on manufacturers’ toxic release by release level. We applied the censored quantile instrumental variable estimator (CQIV) to data on the U.S. transportation equipment manufacturing subsector facilities. Results show that ISO 14001 had a negative and statistically significant effect on the top 10% manufacturing sites in terms of on-site toxic release, but it did not reduce off-site toxic release. Therefore, one should not expect ISO 14001 to have a uniform impact on manufacturing sites’ environmental performance. For large firms, encouraging voluntary adoption of ISO 14001 might be an effective government strategy to reduce on-site pollution. However, for small firms and for the purpose of reducing off-site pollution, other economic incentives or regulations are warranted.

Keywords: Censored Quantile Regression, Environmental Performance, ISO 14001, Manufacturing

JEL Classification: L620, Q23, Q24, Q530

Suggested Citation

Nemati, Mehdi and Zheng, Yuqing and Hu, Wuyang, ISO-14001 Standard and Firms' Environmental Performance: Evidence from the U.S. Transportation Equipment Manufacturers (July 27, 2016). Prepared for Presentation at the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association and Western Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, July 31-August 2 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2932347 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2932347

Mehdi Nemati (Contact Author)

University of California, Riverside (UCR) ( email )

900 University Avenue
Riverside, CA CA 92521
United States

Yuqing Zheng

University of Kentucky - College of Agriculture - Department of Agricultural Economics ( email )

Lexington, KY 40546
United States

Wuyang Hu

University of Kentucky ( email )

Lexington, KY 40506
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
143
Abstract Views
694
Rank
403,341
PlumX Metrics