Regulators as ‘agents’: power and personality in risk regulation and a role for agent‐based simulation

We critically examine how evidence and knowledge are brokered between the various actors (agents) in regulatory decisions on risk. Following a précis of context and regulatory process, we explore the role power and personality might play as evidence is synthesised and used to inform risk decisions, providing a review of the relevant literature from applied psychology, agent‐based simulation and regulatory science. We make a case for the adoption of agent‐based tools for addressing the sufficiency of evidence and resolving uncertainty in regulatory decisions. Referring to other environmental applications of agent‐based decision‐making, we propose how an agent model might represent power structures and personality characteristics with the attending implications for the brokering of regulatory science. This critical review has implications for the structuring of evidence that informs environmental decisions and the personal traits required of modern regulators operating in facilitative regulatory settings.     

Environmental Product Standards, International Trade and Monopolistic Competition

Thispaper examines the performance of non-cooperative environmentalpolicy in the case of local consumption externalities. In a two-countrymodel with monopolistic competiton, governments simultaneouslyimpose environmental product standards. Stricter regulationsforce the industrial sector to shift resources from non-environmentalto environmental R&D. Since the R&Dallocation in each country depends on the domestic as well asforeign policy, local decisions affect the economic and ecologicalsystem in the other region. Despite the arising spillovers, thepayoff dominant equilibria of the countries' game are efficient.This result requires similar but not identical preferences andtechnologies in both countries. It holds even if the regionsdiffer in market size. Under certain conditions, the non-cooperativesolutions remain efficient in the case of global pollution.     

The Impact of Small Brownfields and Greenspaces on Residential Property Values

Using a hedonic pricing model, this paper investigates the responsiveness of residential property values in a well-defined inner-city neighborhood of Kenosha, Wisconsin, to the presence of two small former industrial sites contaminated by various environmental pollutants, or brownfields, and a local neighborhood park, or greenspace. Using readily available data on sales and assessments for residential property in close proximity to the brownfields and the greenspace, we estimate well-behaved and statistically significant property value gradients with respect to the park, the environmental amenity, and the brownfields, the environmental disamenities. These functions are then used to estimate the possible impact that brownfield remediation may have on total property value. We estimate that remediation and redevelopment of the brownfields into greenspaces would increase property values for the 890 neighborhood residences between $2.40 and $7.01 million. These results suggest that small brownfields have a measurable impact on property values and that readily accessible data can be used to help local policymakers make decisions on remediation issues.     

注册会计师在环境审计中所占地位初探

随着国际地位的日益提高以及经济的快速发展,我国的环境保护压力日益加剧,环境审计势必将发挥越来越重要的作用。但现阶段我国环境审计的主体是政府主导的相关部门,审计效果并不理想。为了避免在公有制经济中政府干预进入市场导致低效率,根据委托-代理理论的相关内容,可以确立注册会计师在环境审计中的主体地位。在此基础上,进行以财务为导向的审计活动,从而增强所披露信息的准确性及时效性,以促进企业利益相关者做出正确的决策。     

Measuring corporate environmental performance

As shareholders, government regulators, consumers, employees, and the general public pay more attention to companies' environmental performance, measurement issues are becoming increasingly important and demand is growing for relevant information to assist stakeholders in making key decisions. Despite the enhanced interest in and attention to companies' environmental activities, the accounting profession has been slow to take on the role of defining, measuring, and controlling this broad corporate domain. Thus, measures of environmental performance have proliferated in the absence of clear, generally accepted guidelines as to what constitutes good and bad environmental performance. As a result, the public is becoming increasingly confused and cynical about interpretation of such data. In this paper, we use theoretical and empirical approaches to define corporate environmental performance and consider how well existing measures operationalize the construct. Interestingly, some popular environmental rating schemes seem to rely more heavily on public reaction to environmental events than on more precise and measurable outcome or process dimensions. Our findings suggest a need for explicit environmental performance metrics in order to provide stakeholders with more reliable, consistent, and accurate information for comparing companies and making key strategic decisions. We argue that the accounting profession is an obvious candidate for establishing such metrics since the domain of accounting typically includes measuring, communicating, and regulating information about company performance. Expanding accountants' domain to include environmental performance can greatly contribute to the usefulness of environmental performance metrics.     

Environmental disclosure and environmental risk: Sceptical attitudes of UK sell-side bank analysts

In responding to the mixed evidence on the decision-usefulness of environmental disclosures to capital market participants, this paper examines the decision-usefulness, to sell-side bank analysts, of annual report environmental narratives. In doing so it focuses mainly on the materiality of environmental reporting and the perceived importance of environmental risks in the assessment of bank risk profile and valuation. Noting that banks themselves have recognised the importance of environmental filtration of loan decisions, this paper seeks to examine the attitudes of a prominent reporting user group (19 London-based sell-side bank analysts) towards environmental reporting and the materiality of environmental risks. Findings showed that recognition of the materiality of environmental risks in banks is uncommon among sell-side analysts and that environmental narratives are often ignored and regarded as perfunctory. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of analysts in the reporting information ‘supply chain’ and how the analysts’ frame of reference may limit the inclusion of longer-term issues, such as the environment, in their analysis.     

地方政府环境规制与企业迁移行为——基于中国工业企业数据库样本的成本视角

基于微观企业成本视角,利用中国工业企业数据库12年间524205家企业的面板数据,实证检验地方政府环境规制对企业迁移行为的影响,以及企业研发创新与迁移成本对地方政府环境规制与企业迁移行为间关系的调节作用。结果显示：地方政府环境规制强度与企业迁移行为呈正相关关系;企业研发创新和迁移成本均负向调节了地方政府环境规制强度和企业迁移行为的关系,且调节作用在不同地区以及不同类型企业中存在异质性。     

Some Pitfalls of an Overemphasis on Science in Environmental Risk Management Decisions

This paper addresses the question whether calls for “more” and “better” science will have the intended effect of improving the quality of decisions about environmental risks. There are reasons to be skeptical: key judgment tasks that fundamentally shape many aspects of decisions about environmental risk management lie outside the domain of science. These tasks include making value judgments explicit, integrating facts and values to create innovative alternatives, and constructively addressing conflicts about uncertainty. To bring new specificity to an old debate, we highlight six pitfalls in environmental risk decisions that can occur as the result of an overemphasis on science as the basis for management choices.     

Voluntary Environmental Disclosures by Large UK Companies

Abstract:  This paper examines the patterns in voluntary environmental disclosures made by a sample of large UK companies. The analysis distinguishes between the decision to make a voluntary environmental disclosure and decisions concerning the quality of such disclosures and examines how each type of decision is determined by firm and industry characteristics. We find that larger, less indebted companies with dispersed ownership characteristics are significantly more likely to make voluntary environmental disclosures, and that the quality of disclosures is positively associated with firm size and corporate environmental impact. We find significant cross-sector variation in the determinants of both the participation and quality decisions. Furthermore, the manner of this variation differs between the two.     

Bringing the environment into bank lending: implications for environmental reporting

In recent years, it has come to be recognised that banks' lending operations affect, and are affected by, the state of the natural environment. In particular, rising public concern about the state of the natural environment, as reflected in legislation and consumer attitudes, poses risks for the state of a bank's lending portfolio. Even if they are not directly concerned about the environment, banks therefore have an incentive to understand the environmental implications of their lending decisions. This generates a potential demand for environmental information on companies.This paper reports on empirical research conducted to explore the interface between bank lending and the demand for environmental information. Based on a postal questionnaire survey of banks engaged in corporate lending in the UK, supplemented by a programme of semi-structured interviews, it reports on: the extent to which UK banks incorporate environmental considerations into their corporate lending decisions; the sources of information used by banks when making corporate lending decisions which involve environmental considerations; and lending bankers' views on developments in environmental reporting.The results indicate, inter alia, the importance that bankers attach to the annual report, notwithstanding its traditional limitations as a source of information on corporate environmental impact, and some desire for extensions to environmental disclosure. However, those desired developments are relatively narrow in scope, mirroring banks' principal interest in protecting their loans, and tend not to extend to more comprehensive forms of environmental disclosure such as might be expected to be found in a separate corporate environmental report.     

Strategic online banking adoption

In this paper we study the determinants of banks’ decisions to adopt a transactional website for their customers. Using a panel of commercial banks in the United States for the period 2003–2006, we show that although bank-specific characteristics are important determinants of banks’ adoption decisions, competition also plays a prominent role. The extent of competition is related to the geographic overlap of banks in different markets and their relative market share in terms of deposits. In particular, banks adopt online banking services earlier in markets where their competitors have already adopted this technology. This paper is one of the first to construct local banking markets using the geographic market definitions delimited by the CASSIDI® Database compiled at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.     

生态损害赔偿制度促进了企业环保投资吗?

以沪深A股重污染行业上市公司为研究样本,实证检验《生态环境损害赔偿制度改革试点方案》的实施对企业环保投资的影响及政治关联的调节效应。结果显示：该制度的出台显著提高了试点地区企业的环保投资水平,且企业政治关联对二者之间的关系具有正向调节作用。在解决了自选择偏差问题以及通过安慰剂检验后,该结论依然成立。进一步分析发现,该制度主要通过提高地方环境规制力度来促进企业环保投资。此外,其促进效应在非国有企业、地方财政环保支出较低及市场化程度较高的地区中更为显著。     

How to arrest the decline of local government

In political terms, the case for abolishing rates and substituting a local income tax has frequently been made, notably by the Layfield Committee of Inquiry into Local Government Finance: political independence of local government can only come through financial independence from central government grant. The financial case, which has so far tended to go by default, is based on the premise that local spending decisions can only be made responsibly if the cost of these decisions is felt on the authorities’ own tax base. With the existing level of government support, that is impossible ‐ at least with a Government which appears reluctant to follow through the logic of its new block grant and make rates take the strain of extra spending. Historically, local government has lost its powers in direct proportion to the decline in its tax base. Only local income tax will allow expansion of local responsibility in the longer term, and provide the basis for proper financial accountability. That should appeal to a Government which has often professed its support for such an expansion, and yet is also concerned with making sure that taxing and spending decisions are taken together.     

Yardstick competition and public sector innovation

The paper addresses the incentives of the public sector to implement new technologies in public service provision. The focus is on the role of local governments under decentralization. Exploiting variation in the level of innovation in a large sample of US school districts, the impact of yardstick competition on the choice of public sector technologies is identified. It is shown that the impact of other districts’ innovation activity on a district’s innovation score is much stronger in communities where incumbents face a high risk of being elected out of office. This finding suggests that under decentralization, yardstick competition is an important force shaping the decisions of local governments to adopt new technologies.      

A Conceptual Analysis of Price Setting in Australian Local Government

A complex set of issues underlies the pricing of the diverse range of goods and services from which Australian local governments derive a significant portion of their revenues. Although local governments have a not‐for‐profit orientation, they are expected to be financially viable and embrace a broad notion of accountability. They are also expected to influence the behaviour of constituents in accordance with policy decisions, but be equitable in doing so. These and related parameters are discussed and illustrated in order to reveal and elucidate the nature of pricing decisions in local government, and to differentiate the local government context from other price‐setting environments.     

InsurTech in the United States and Germany—What are the drivers behind the different business models?

Comparing the InsurTech ecosystems of the United States and Germany (Europe), there are significant regional differences in the choice of business models. While many InsurTechs in the United States have opted for the business model of a fully licensed insurer, this business model is much less common in Europe. In Europe, many InsurTechs seem to shy away from applying for a license as an insurer and limit themselves to the business model of a broker or a managing general agent. This paper analyzes the factors that influence an InsurTech's choice of business model when deciding whether or not to apply for an insurance license. It examines the impact of different local market environments on these decisions, as well as the role that access to venture capital plays in business model decisions and how regulators and their actions influence the decision-making process.     

GDP manipulation,political incentives,and earnings management

Political decisions often affect macroeconomic activity, which triggers effects on corporate decisions. Using satellite night light data to proxy for economic activity, we show that manipulation of GDP figures is associated with earnings management by local companies, especially when local politicians face more promotion pressure. We show that local politicians seeking career advancement exchange favors with local companies and pressure them to inflate earnings to increase local GDP numbers. Our findings illustrate how the macro-level political agenda and GDP manipulation can affect micro-level corporate earnings management.     

Investment decisions: The trade-off between economic and environmental objectives

While there are broader socio-political, psychological, and structural factors that influence investment decisions (see Harris et al., 2016), in line with the critical approach, this study provides an empirical insight into the notion that financialization, specifically the tendency to prioritise economic over environmental objectives, has a strong bearing on how managers view investment trade-off decisions in relation to sustainability issues. The study empirically investigates this notion by examining the investment trade–off preferences of Australian managers in relation to three decision attributes – economic outcomes (i.e. financial returns), environmental impact (i.e. carbon emissions) and stakeholder pressure to consider environmental issues. We use the discrete choice experimental method to quantify the trade-offs between the above mentioned three attributes. In addition, we also investigate the potential effect of three contingency factors on individual's preferences. Specifically, at the organisational level, we explore the effects of financial and environmental rewards and at the individual level, we explore the effect of environmental consciousness. In line with the financialization hypotheses our results indicate that managers prioritise financial returns over carbon emissions and stakeholder pressures with the preference for financial returns found to be positively associated with rewards for financial performance. However, in line with the pragmatic approach and despite the overall dominance of financial returns, there is evidence that manager's focus on financial returns can be influenced, with the preference for financial returns negatively associated with rewards for environmental performance and environmental consciousness. In addition, while stakeholder pressure was not found to be associated with any of the three contingency factors and, manager's emphasis on carbon emissions was not associated with financial rewards, manager's emphasis on carbon emissions was found to be positively associated with both rewards for environmental performance and environmental consciousness. Therefore, our findings suggest that corporate management have an important role to play, both in respect to the design of performance rewards systems and the recruitment of environmentally conscious managers, in order to promote the sustainability agenda.     

Climate change adaptation: Is there a role for intervention research?

While climate change will expose regions to similar impacts, the extent of those impacts and effective response at the local level will be determined not only by the location's sensitivity and vulnerability but also by local groups and individuals’ capacity, including their institutional links, social networks and motivation to action. In parallel, scientific information and research plays a critical role in informing climate change adaptation by providing both an improved understanding of the actual climate risks and response alternatives.The paper focuses on two local-scale intervention research projects undertaken in urbanised coastal areas in Brazil and in Australia concentrated on improving the dialogue between ‘those who make science’ and ‘those who use science to make decisions’ in order to make climate science more useful, and creating purposeful collective action, respectively. A conceptual model is devised to investigate how intervention research could aid adaptive capacity by generating new knowledge and facilitating change towards climate change adaptation at the local level. Drawing on the findings, a framework is proposed to advance the role of intervention research in policy development for enhancing adaptive capacity.     

How do financial institutions react to a tax increase?

This paper empirically highlights the role and significance of taxes for the capital structure decisions of banks. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, I show that an increase in the local U.S. state corporate tax rate affects the banks’ financing as well as their operating choices. Better-capitalized banks raise their long-term non-depository debt and thus benefit from an enlarged tax shield. Worse-capitalized banks instead reduce their lending because a higher tax rate increases the tax-adjusted cost of funding, which renders the marginal loan unprofitable.