Increasing the Transparency of Environmental Regulation

This project will assess the effectiveness of disseminated information in improving the enforcement of environmental regulation in India. The evaluation, conducted jointly with the environmental regulator in an Indian state, will test two interventions. First, a Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS), which will report pollution readings directly to the regulator’s office; versus a manual emission monitoring system, in which emissions are measured by an engineer at most several times each year. Second, pollution data from select firms will be disseminated via the internet to increase public awareness. The two interventions will be crossed to create four treatment groups. The project will measure the impact of these treatments on regulatory actions and pollution emissions.