Submitted by Joseph Shapiro on
This research, joint with Prof. Reed Walker from the Haas School, investigates how firms respond to environmental regulation by adapting the design of factories and emission technologies. To this end, we have compiled a large number of environmental and operating permits for polluting plants across the US. We are using information from these permits to quantify impacts of environmental policy on firms' emissions and productivity
We seek help turning copies of industrial environmental permits into a database of environmental permits and emission rates. This involves reading environmental and operating permits for each plant, understanding the layout and interpretation of each permit, and extracting information on the emission rates of each plant. Many permits have different layout and structure, so the student will need to understand how each industrial plant organizes and presents information on its environmental impacts. At the end of the project, the students will have a deep knowledge of how industrial plants are designed, permitted, and operated within the context of the US Clean Air Act, will have constructed a database of industrial air pollution design and emissions levels for use in research, and will have gained the ability to parse legal and industrial written materials to extract economic and environmental information.
Phenomenal reading ability; written and spoken communication ability, organization of email, writing, and record-keeping; attention to detail; grit and frustration tolerance; ability to work for extended periods independently and then with intensive collaboration as part of a team; curiosity and excitement about understanding environmental policy.