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Voluntary development of environmental management systems: motivations and regulatory implications

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Abstract

Encouraging firms to develop voluntarily more comprehensive environmental management systems (EMSs) is touted as a policy tool to augment mandatory environmental regulations. Using a unique dataset of environmental management practices of Japanese manufacturers and controlling for self-selection bias in survey responses, we find that proxies for regulatory pressures and consumer pressures are the most important factors that motivate firms toward more comprehensive EMSs. Despite the oft-claimed “voluntary” nature of EMS development, our results show that the government may have a role to play in both directly and indirectly affecting EMS development by firms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, 2108-11 Kamiyamaguchi, Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0115, Japan

    Toshihiro Uchida

  2. Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3992, Atlanta, GA, 30302-3992, USA

    Paul J. Ferraro

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  1. Toshihiro Uchida
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  2. Paul J. Ferraro
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Correspondence to Toshihiro Uchida.

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Uchida, T., Ferraro, P.J. Voluntary development of environmental management systems: motivations and regulatory implications. J Regul Econ 32, 37–65 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11149-006-9016-6

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