Has the Clean Air Interstate Rule Fulfilled Its Mission? An Assessment of Federal Rule‐Making in Preventing Regional Spillover Pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency developed the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) to minimize sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and prevent pollution spillover into downwind states. While observers of CAIR claim success in the reduction of air pollution, our innovative multivariate statistical analysis based on spatial and facility‐level panel data finds mixed results concerning the rule's effectiveness. On the one hand, we find that CAIR facilities are associated with increases in the reduction rate of pollution compared to non‐CAIR facilities. However, the evidence suggests that sulfur dioxide levels decreased in CAIR‐mandated facilities before the actual implementation of the program. Additionally, on the one hand, CAIR facilities in the interior of states are associated with slower pollution reduction rates than those on the border. However, this difference in reduction rate does not change dramatically before or after the adoption or implementation of this rule. This suggests that the CAIR program was ineffective in targeting specific facilities most likely to contribute to interstate pollution. We conclude that while CAIR spurred the electrical utility industry to reduce air pollution, some of these reductions occurred before the actual implementation of the program. More substantially, gains in interstate spillover pollution did not occur by targeting specific facilities most likely to spillover but rather through the overall reduction of air pollution in the eastern states.     

Foreclosure in contests

We consider a contest where one firm has a cost advantage over rivals. Instead of taking the set of rivals as given, the favorite can transfer the source of its advantage wholly or partially to a subset of rival firms. Foreclosure of those firms that do not receive the cost reduction may result. We present conditions under which this transfer will occur and consider the welfare properties of exclusion. The expected payoff of the dominant firm is independent of the size of the cost reduction transferred to rivals. Applications include lobbying, patent races and access to essential infrastructure.     

R&D spillovers in a supply chain and productivity performance in British firms

The Journal of Technology Transfer - It is well known that there are incentives for cooperation and collaboration along the supply chain, as the performance of any one firm is dependent on that of...     

Seeking sanctuary: Housing undocumented immigrants

This paper studies housing market outcomes of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and explores the mechanisms behind the differential prices that immigrants pay for shelter. I show that undocumented renters pay a premium for housing relative to observably similar, documented, immigrant renters occupying similar housing. Building on theory and suggestive evidence that the premium is the result of search frictions driven by fear of deportation, I employ a triple-differences strategy to evaluate the impacts of sanctuary city policies on housing market outcomes of undocumented immigrants. I find that sanctuary city policies, which limit immigration enforcement, reduce housing costs of undocumented renters, suggesting such policies mitigate search frictions for this group.