The Informational Role of Voluntary Certification: Evidence from the Mexican Clean Industry Program
利用墨西哥清洁工业计划数据，研究发现企业自愿认证有助于监管机构更高效地分配检查资源，且认证公告对上市公司股价有正面影响。
In the presence of imperfect information, voluntary certification can provide an important complement to mandatory inspections as a basis for environmental regulation in low income countries. Using data from Mexico's Clean Industry Program, we show that patterns of compliance and certification by sector are consistent with a model in which selection into the voluntary program permits more efficient targeting of regulator effort. As expected given the informational role played by certification in the model, we also find evidence, for a sample of publicly traded firms, of positive stock price deviations linked to the announcement of certification.