Absentee Ownership and Corporate Environmental Performance

该项目解决了两个关于非州工厂环境绩效的问题：(1)总部设在州外或国外的工厂是否比本地工厂排放更多的毒素？(2)总部设在偏远地区的工厂是否污染更大，这取决于其所在社区的社会资本。全球化和资本主义扩张的批评者认为，那些不在当地的自有工厂对当地社区作为居住地没有长期的兴趣。相反，他们非常愿意掠夺他们的自然环境，如果这将最大化他们的母公司的利润。与此同时，关于结构嵌入的文献表明，这种组织模式过于简单化，无论工厂总部设在哪里，工厂的绩效都受到其所在地区制度文化的制约。该研究将检验几个假设——(1)州外或外国总部的化工厂排放率更高（即，向环境释放他们在现场使用的化学品的百分比更大）；(2)州外或外国总部的化工厂位于公民不参与的社区时，排放率更高；(3)总部设在州外或国外的化工厂，如果位于公民不参与且由贫穷的少数民族组成的社区，其排放率特别高。为了验证这些假设，将使用一个包含大约2000家化工厂的数据文件。该文件包括EPA有毒物质释放清单中每个工厂的有毒物质释放信息，其所有权状况以及周围社区的社会和制度特征。将采用横截面设计来确定1990年不在场所有权对排放率的直接和有条件的影响。为了评估这些影响是如何改变的，将采用滞后面板设计。研究结果将为迅速成为商业组织模式类型的企业提供新的见解：缺席所有权。先前的研究表明，缺席所有权具有经济和社会效应；这项研究将是第一个具体说明一些条件下，缺席所有权也有环境后果。调查结果可能会指导监管机构决定是否要更密切地监控外资企业拥有的工厂，并指导企业界进行自我监管。

SES-0215366PI (s) Don Grant IIUniversity of Arizona The project addresses two questions concerning the environmental performance of absentee owned plants: (1) Do plants with out-of-state or foreign headquarters emit more toxins than locally owned plants?, and (2) Do plants with remote headquarters pollute more depending on the social capital of their host communities. Critics of globalization and capitalist expansion suggest that absentee owned plants have no long-term interest in local communities as places to live. Rather they are very willing to plunder their natural surroundings if it will maximize their parent firm's profits. Meanwhile literature on structural embeddedness suggest that this organizational model is too simplistic, that regardless of where a plant's headquarters is located, a plant's performance is conditioned by the local institutional culture in which it is situated. The research will test several hypothesis-(1) chemical plants with out-of-state or foreign headquarters have higher emission rates (i.e., release a larger percent of chemicals they use on-site to the environment), (2) chemical plants with out-of-state or foreign headquarters have higher emission rates when located in civically disengaged communities, and (3) chemical plants with out-of-state ore foreign headquarters have particularly high emission rates when located in communities that are both civically disengaged and comprised of poor minorities. To test these hypotheses, a data file consisting of roughly 2000 chemical plants will be used. The file includes information on each plant's toxic releases from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory, its ownership status, and the social and institutional features of its surrounding community. A cross-section design will be used to determine the direct and conditional effects of absentee ownership on emission rates in 1990. To assess how these effects have changed a lagged panel design will be employed.Findings will provide new insights into what is rapidly becoming the modal type of business organization: absentee ownership. Prior research has demonstrated that absentee ownership has economic and social effects; this study will be the first to specify some of the conditions under which absentee ownership also has environmental consequences. Results could potentially guide regulators in deciding whether to monitor plants owned by foreign firms more closely, and the business community in its efforts at self-regulation.