Public disclosure of environmental violations in the Republic of Korea

Abstract

Since 1989, environmental authorities of the Republic of Korea have published on a monthly basis a list of enterprises violating the country's environmental rules and regulations. This may be the longest environmental public disclosure program currently in existence. Over the period 1993-2001 in excess of 7,000 violations have been recorded in these monthly violation lists, involving more than 3,400 different companies. In this paper, the authors provide a comprehensive descriptive analysis of this dataset. Results suggest that the news media have given an important, though perhaps declining coverage, to the violation lists, with a focus on publicly traded companies, failures to operate pollution abatement equipment, and prosecutions.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Water and Industry,Health Economics&Finance,National Governance