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Social capital, environmental justice and carcinogenic waste releases: US county-level evidence, 1998–2019

Ataullah, Ali; Coleman, Simeon; Le, Hang; Wang, Zilong

Social capital, environmental justice and carcinogenic waste releases: US county-level evidence, 1998–2019 Thumbnail


Authors

Ali Ataullah

Simeon Coleman

HANG LE HANG.LE@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Associate Professor

Zilong Wang



Abstract

We examine the role of social capital in explaining the highly unequal regional distribution of firms’ carcinogenic releases. Our model predicts that social capital, by enabling information-sharing and coordination among community members, decreases carcinogenic releases. Our analysis, based on the US county-level releases derived from around 2 million chemical-facility-level reports during the period 1998–2019 and the instrumental variables approach, confirms our prediction. However, the impact is reduced when counties rely on waste-releasing firms for economic opportunities. An important policy implication of our study is that the efficacy of initiatives to alleviate environmental injustice is likely to depend on communities’ social capital.

Citation

Ataullah, A., Coleman, S., Le, H., & Wang, Z. (2023). Social capital, environmental justice and carcinogenic waste releases: US county-level evidence, 1998–2019. Regional Studies, 57(11), 2220-2237. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2159023

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 3, 2022
Online Publication Date Jan 30, 2023
Publication Date Nov 2, 2023
Deposit Date Dec 19, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Regional Studies
Print ISSN 0034-3404
Electronic ISSN 1360-0591
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 57
Issue 11
Pages 2220-2237
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2159023
Keywords General Social Sciences, General Environmental Science
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/15160042
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00343404.2022.2159023

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