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...

The authors start from the premise that governments act as agents of the public in regulating pollution, using the instruments at their disposal. But when formal regulatory mechanisms are absent or ineffective, communities will seek other means of translating their preferences into reality....

In both countries the higher the level of community income, the lower the pollution intensity of local plants. This paper provides support for the idea that community-based pressure on plants to abate pollution exists, even in the presence of formal regulation.Pargal, Hettige, Singh, and Wheeler...