Environmental Regulations and Productivity Growth: The Case of Fossil-fueled Electric Power Generation
测量了1973-79年商业周期中二氧化硫排放限制对美国电力行业生产率增长的影响，发现规制使受限公用事业的生产率年均降低0.59个百分点，主要源于低硫燃料成本增加。
This paper measures and analyzes the effect of sulfur dioxide emission restrictions on the rate of productivity growth in the electric power industry over the 1973-79 business cycle. A firm-specific measure of regulatory intensity is developed which depends on the severity of the emission standard, the extent of enforcement, and the unconstrained emission rate relevant to each utility. The results indicate that emission regulations result in significantly higher generating costs, primarily from the increased use of low-sulfur fuels. The average rate of productivity growth was reduced by 0.59 percentage points per year for constrained utilities.