eprintid: 29474
rev_number: 17
eprint_status: archive
userid: 3114
dir: disk0/00/02/94/74
datestamp: 2021-03-11 13:50:11
lastmod: 2021-03-15 13:49:19
status_changed: 2021-03-11 13:50:11
type: workingPaper
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Goeschl, Timo
creators_name: Oestreich, Marcel
creators_name: Soldà, Alice
title: Competitive vs. Random Audit Mechanisms in Environmental Regulation: Emissions, Self-Reporting, and the Role of Peer Information
subjects: ddc-330
divisions: i-181000
keywords: environmental regulation; regulatory compliance; tournament theory; mechanism design; Laboratory experiment
abstract: In a simplifying analytical framework with endogenous levels of actual and self-reported emissions, we consolidate the existing literature into three main hypotheses about the relative merits, for a resource-constrained regulator, of random (RAM) and competitive (CAM) audit mechanisms in the presence or absence of peer information about actual emissions. Testing the three hypotheses in a quasi-laboratory experiment (N = 131), we find supportive evidence that CAM always induce more truthful reporting than RAM. Moreover, we provide the empirical validation of the theoretical prediction that CAM can succeed in aligning actual emissions more closely with the social optimum in the presence of peer information when RAM cannot. Behavioral mechanisms prevent reaching the first-best outcome.
date: 2021-03
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00029474
schriftenreihe_cluster_id: sr-3
schriftenreihe_order: 0699
ppn_swb: 1751345769
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-294749
language: eng
bibsort: GOESCHLTIMCOMPETITIV202103
full_text_status: public
series: Discussion Paper Series / University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics
volume: 0699
place_of_pub: Heidelberg
pages: 27
citation:   Goeschl, Timo ; Oestreich, Marcel ; Soldà, Alice  (2021) Competitive vs. Random Audit Mechanisms in Environmental Regulation: Emissions, Self-Reporting, and the Role of Peer Information.  [Working paper]     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/29474/7/Goeschl_Oestreich_Solda_2021_dp699.pdf