Data on 100 000 US factories is used to develop comprehensive abatement cost estimates by industry sector for seven major air pollutants. The results reveal very high intersectoral variances in marginal and average abatement costs: maximum/ minimum ratios are frequently near 10, and occasionally...

Accounting measures of profitability are viewed by the academic literature with skepticism, perhaps even disdain. Accounting information and accounting rates of return are, however, relied upon extensively by market participants to compare and contrast the economic performance of alternative...