The appeal of voluntary environmental programs: which firms participate and why?

Why do firms participate in the EPA's voluntary environmental programs? Possible reasons include: (1) to appeal to consumers who demand 'green' products; (2) to preempt government regulation; (3) to seek regulatory relief from the agency; and (4) to gain a competitive advantage over competitors. This article examines the determinants of participation in voluntary environmental programs, focusing on testing hypotheses 1 and 3. To test 2, a different approach is used than in previous literature. The focus is on a specified universe of firms (manufacturing firms in the Standard & Poor 500), and their participation in each of three EPA voluntary programs (33/50, Green Lights, and WasteWi$) referring to differently regulated pollutants is analyzed. Our empirical analyses reveal that (1) publicity is an important component of participation; (2) the worse the environmental track record of the firm, the more likely the firm is to participate, but only in programs directly related to highly regulated pollutants; and (3) firms that scrutinize their environmental performance more carefully are wary of newer programs with uncertain reach of the public and uncertain benefits. Firms appear to value the information/technology transfer aspect of joining a program. Copyright 2000 Western Economic Association International.

Estudio de las adenopatías cervicales y de los factores predictivos de su malignidad: El valor de la biopsia en la adenopatía cervical

Revisión de todas las biopsias de adenopatías cervicales realizadas en el Hospital Sierrallana (Cantabria) desde su apertura en el año 1996 hasta el 2002. Se estudiaron las características de éstas y se comparan con lo resultados de la punción-aspiración con aguja fina (PAAF). Se revisa el valor diagnóstico de la misma y se buscan factores relacionados con el mal pronóstico. analizar la concordancia entre los resultados de las pruebas

Estimating the impact on efficiency of the adoption of a voluntary environmental standard : an empirical study of the global copper mining industry

This paper uses data on the world’s copper mining industry to measure the impact on efficiency of the adoption of the ISO 14001 environmental standard. Anecdotal and case study literature suggests that firms are motivated to adopt this standard so as to achieve greater efficiency through changes in operating procedures and processes. Using plant level panel data from 1992 to 2007 on most of the world’s industrial copper mines, the study uses stochastic frontier methods to investigate the effects of ISO adoption. The variety of models used in this study find that adoption either tends to improve efficiency or has no impact on efficiency, but no evidence is found that ISO adoption decreases efficiency