IFS/STICERD/UCL Development Work in Progress Seminar
Opening the Brown Box: Production Responses to Environmental Regulation
Lakshmi Naaraayanan (LBS)
Thursday 24 April 2025 14:00 - 15:00
Many of our seminars and public events this year will continue as in person or as hybrid (online and in person) events.
Please check our website listings and Twitter feed @STICERD_LSE for updates.
Unless otherwise specified, in-person seminars are open to the public. Please ensure you have informed the event contact as early as possible.
Those unable to join the seminars in-person are welcome to participate via zoom if the event is hybrid.
About this event
We study manufacturing firms' production responses to an emission capping regulation. Firms lower emissions by improving energy efficiency, substituting towards cleaner fuels, and moving from producing electricity to purchasing it from the grid. They move away from coal-intensive products and increase their abatement expenditures. These changes improve firm productivity, supporting theories that regulation prompts technology adoption. In the aggregate, we document lower product variety and an altered firm-size distribution, driven by a reduced likelihood of business formation. Our findings highlight the mechanisms behind how mandated pollution reduction can be effective and the costs it imposes, suggesting a loss of agglomeration externalities.