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Does Information Disclosure Reduce Drinking Water Violations in the United States?

Publication ,  Journal Article
Baker, J; Bennear, L; Olmstead, S
Published in: Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
May 1, 2023

The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments required community water systems to disclose violations of drinking water standards to their customers in annual water quality reports. We explore the impact of three methods of disclosure on health-based drinking water quality violations using a matching and differences-in-differences framework with a national data set of drinking water quality violations from 1990 to 2001. We find that this information disclosure requirement reduced drinking water violations significantly and that the primary effect of disclosure on violations persists for at least four years after policy implementation. We find no evidence, however, that water systems trade these potentially more salient violation reductions for potentially less salient reductions in violations of other standards, nor do we find any evidence that water systems responded differentially to disclosure based on the demo-graphic or political characteristics of their customers.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

DOI

EISSN

2333-5963

ISSN

2333-5955

Publication Date

May 1, 2023

Volume

10

Issue

3

Start / End Page

787 / 818

Related Subject Headings

  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 1402 Applied Economics
  • 0599 Other Environmental Sciences
 

Citation

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Baker, J., Bennear, L., & Olmstead, S. (2023). Does Information Disclosure Reduce Drinking Water Violations in the United States? Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 10(3), 787–818. https://doi.org/10.1086/722619
Baker, J., L. Bennear, and S. Olmstead. “Does Information Disclosure Reduce Drinking Water Violations in the United States?Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 10, no. 3 (May 1, 2023): 787–818. https://doi.org/10.1086/722619.
Baker J, Bennear L, Olmstead S. Does Information Disclosure Reduce Drinking Water Violations in the United States? Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. 2023 May 1;10(3):787–818.
Baker, J., et al. “Does Information Disclosure Reduce Drinking Water Violations in the United States?Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2023, pp. 787–818. Scopus, doi:10.1086/722619.
Baker J, Bennear L, Olmstead S. Does Information Disclosure Reduce Drinking Water Violations in the United States? Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. 2023 May 1;10(3):787–818.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

DOI

EISSN

2333-5963

ISSN

2333-5955

Publication Date

May 1, 2023

Volume

10

Issue

3

Start / End Page

787 / 818

Related Subject Headings

  • 3801 Applied economics
  • 1402 Applied Economics
  • 0599 Other Environmental Sciences