Essays on Environmental Regulation,Tort Law,and Public Health.
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文摘
This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 is entitled "How do Tort Reforms Affect the Accidental Death Rate? An Empirical Analysis". Chapter 2 is entitled "General Deterrence and the Clean Air Act". Chapter 3 is entitled "The Effects of Carbon Monoxide on Elderly Mortality Outcomes: Evidence from the National Ambient Air Quality Standard". Chapter 1 estimates whether several common types of tort reforms affect the rate of accidental deaths. Torts are acts that injure others, such as acts that cause accidents, and tort reforms are laws limiting civil liability for committing torts. Analyzing data on accidental death rates, the presence of tort reforms, and controls from the 50 U.S. states and D.C. from 1981--2004, I find that reforms to the collateral source rule are associated with more accidental deaths and reforms to the rule of joint and several liability are associated with fewer accidental deaths, but that other reforms such as caps on non-economic damages and punitive damages reforms do not have robust associations with accidental deaths. Chapter 2 estimates whether manufacturing plants reduce the amount of air pollution they emit in response to regulatory sanctions of other plants. I find that large legal sanctions imposed on polluting plants by U.S. state governments are associated with reductions in pollution emissions at other plants in the same state. This deterrent response to sanctions of others, known as the general deterrent effect of sanctions, stretches across industrial categories and persists for several years. Chapter 3 is joint work with Janet Currie that estimates the contemporaneous effects of ambient concentrations of Carbon Monoxide CO) on mortality outcomes amongst the elderly. We find that reductions in CO levels from the levels experienced in the US between the late 1980s and early 2000s reduce the number of deaths caused by Acute Myocardial Infarctions and strokes amongst persons age 65 and older, and reduce the number of deaths due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease amongst persons age 85 and older.