This unique Handbook offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive, state-of-the-art reviews of the politics of regulation. It presents and discusses the core theories and concepts of regulation in response to the rise of the regulatory state and regulatory capitalism, and in the context of the...

In recent years scholars have highlighted the public policy potential of using voluntary programs based on environmental management systems (EMS) to improve firms' environmental and regulatory performance. While firms receive some benefits for joining EMS-based voluntary programs, these...

Spatial, cultural, and linguistic barriers create information asymmetries between buyers and sellers that impede international trade. The International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 program is designed to reduce these information asymmetries by providing assurance about the product...

Voluntary environmental programs are codes of progressive environmental conduct that firms pledge to adopt. This paper investigates whether ISO 14001, a voluntary program with a weak sword-a weak monitoring and sanctioning mechanism-can mitigate shirking and improve participants' environmental...

Stakeholders who seek to reward or punish businesses for their environmental programs often cannot observe these organizations’ internal policies and operations. To address these informational problems, and signal their beyond-compliance environmental commitments, some businesses are...