Estimation and Market Valuation of Environmental Liabilities Relating to Superfund Sites
研究联邦超级基金场地清理成本估计的影响因素，并基于已知特征预测无成本估计场地的清理费用，进而衡量企业的环境负债，对理解环境负债的财务报告问题有贡献。
This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of financial reporting issues related to environmental liabilities in two ways. First, we investigate whether characteristics known at various points in a Federal Superfund site's regulatory history are significant in explaining cleanup cost estimates. We analyze cost estimates because actual cleanup costs generally are not known; at most sites cleanup is incomplete and there is no central tracking of cleanup costs. We estimate the relation between engineering cost estimates and site characteristics known prior to the availability of these estimates, and use this model to estimate cleanup costs for sites without cost estimates. We base measures of firms' environmental liabilities on these estimates.