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Environmental Liability and Redevelopment of Old Industrial Land

Author

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  • Hilary Sigman

    (Rutgers University)

Abstract
Many communities are concerned about the reuse of potentially contaminated land ("brownfields") and believe that environmental liability is a hindrance to redevelopment. However, with land price adjustments, liability might not impede the reuse of this land. Existing literature has found price reductions in response to liability, but few studies have looked for an effect on vacancies. This paper studies variations in state liability rules --- specifically, strict liability and joint and several liability --- that affect the level and distribution of expected private cleanup costs. It explores the effects of this variation on industrial land prices and vacancy rates and on reported brownfields in a panel of cities across the United States. In the estimated equations, joint and several liability reduces land prices and increases vacancy rates in central cities. Neither a price nor quantity effect is estimated from strict liability. The results suggest that liability is at least partly capitalized, but does still deter redevelopment.

Suggested Citation

  • Hilary Sigman, 2006. "Environmental Liability and Redevelopment of Old Industrial Land," Departmental Working Papers 200609, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:rut:rutres:200609
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kjetil Telle, 2012. "Monitoring and enforcement of environmental regulations. Lessons from a natural field experiment in Norway," Discussion Papers 680, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    2. Endres, Alfred & Friehe, Tim, 2011. "Incentives to diffuse advanced abatement technology under environmental liability law," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 30-40, July.
    3. Wayne B. Gray & Jay P. Shimshack, 2011. "The Effectiveness of Environmental Monitoring and Enforcement: A Review of the Empirical Evidence," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(1), pages 3-24, Winter.
    4. Alfred Endres & Tim Friehe, 2015. "The Compensation Regime in Liability Law: Incentives to Curb Environmental Harm, Ex Ante and Ex Post," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(1), pages 105-123, September.
    5. Linn, Joshua, 2013. "The effect of voluntary brownfields programs on nearby property values: Evidence from Illinois," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-18.
    6. Friehe, Tim & Langlais, Eric, 2017. "Prevention and cleanup of dynamic harm under environmental liability," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 107-120.
    7. Anna Alberini, 2007. "Determinants And Effects On Property Values Of Participation In Voluntary Cleanup Programs: The Case Of Colorado," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 25(3), pages 415-432, July.
    8. Todd K. BenDor & Sara S. Metcalf & Mark Paich, 2011. "The Dynamics of Brownfield Redevelopment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(6), pages 1-23, June.
    9. Pan, Xianyou & Song, Malin & Wang, Yuqing & Shen, Zhiyang & Song, Jinbo & Xie, Pinjie & Pan, Xiongfeng, 2022. "Liability accounting of natural resource assets from the perspective of input Slack—An analysis based on the energy resource in 282 prefecture-level cities in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Jeffrey Zabel, 2007. "The Impact of Imperfect Information on the Transactions of Contaminated Properties," NCEE Working Paper Series 200703, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Jan 2007.
    11. Chang, Howard F. & Sigman, Hilary, 2007. "The effect of joint and several liability under superfund on brownfields," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 363-384, December.
    12. Howard F. Chang & Hilary Sigman, 2014. "An Empirical Analysis of Cost Recovery in Superfund Cases: Implications for Brownfields and Joint and Several Liability," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(3), pages 477-504, September.
    13. Aline Grahn, 2020. "Precision and Manipulation of Non‐financial Information: The Curious Case of Environmental Liability," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(4), pages 495-534, December.
    14. Robin R. Jenkins & Elizabeth Kopits & David Simpson, 2006. "Measuring the Social Benefits of EPA Land Cleanup and Reuse Programs," NCEE Working Paper Series 200603, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Sep 2006.
    15. Telle, Kjetil, 2013. "Monitoring and enforcement of environmental regulations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 24-34.
    16. Khaled Alshehri & Mohadese Basirati & Devin Sapsford & Michael Harbottle & Peter Cleall, 2024. "Nature-Based Secondary Resource Recovery under Climate Change Uncertainty: A Robust Multi-Objective Optimisation Methodology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-27, August.
    17. Canepa, Alessandra & Drogo, Federico, 2021. "Wildfire crime, apprehension and social vulnerability in Italy," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    18. Alessio D'Amato & Massimiliano Mazzanti & Francesco Nicolli & Mariangela Zoli, 2014. "Illegal Waste Disposal, Territorial Enforcement and Policy. Evidence from regional data," SEEDS Working Papers 0314, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Feb 2014.
    19. Thomas P. Lyon & Haitao Yin & Allen Blackman & Kris Wernstedt, 2018. "Voluntary Cleanup Programs for Brownfield Sites: A Theoretical Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 70(2), pages 297-322, June.
    20. D'Amato, Alessio & Mazzanti, Massimiliano & Nicolli, Francesco & Zoli, Mariangela, 2018. "Illegal waste disposal: Enforcement actions and decentralized environmental policy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 56-65.
    21. Ahmad, Naveed & Zhu, Yuming & Hongli, Lin & Karamat, Jawad & Waqas, Muhammad & Taskheer Mumtaz, Syed Muhammad, 2020. "Mapping the obstacles to brownfield redevelopment adoption in developing economies: Pakistani Perspective," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    22. Jay P. Shimshack, 2014. "The Economics of Environmental Monitoring and Enforcement," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 339-360, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental policy; Tort reform; Real estate; Brownfields;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • R33 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Nonagricultural and Nonresidential Real Estate Markets

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