Addressing Environmental Justice through In-Kind Court Settlements
This article explores when in-kind settlements are most likely to be offered in environmental justice cases, as well as how those settlements are perceived by the public.
Abstract
In US environmental court cases, a cash penalty can be mitigated if a defendant volunteers to undertake an in-kind project, such as retrofitting school buses or building a public park. A goal of the policy is to address environmental justice concerns for low-income and minority populations, yet the historical record shows in-kind settlements most likely occur in cases involving high-income, majority-White communities. A choice experiment reveals that the public prefers in-kind settlements over cash, and a randomized survey reveals in-kind settlements improve the public's view of a violating firm, consistent with our finding of positive stock market reactions to in-kind settlements.
Authors
Pamela Campa
SITE - Stockholm School of Economics
