Replication Data for: Gone with the Wind: Federalism and the Strategic Location of Air Polluters

In federal systems both state governments and firms have incentives to strategically locate polluting facilities where the environmental and health consequences will be borne as much as possible by residents of other jurisdictions. We analyze air polluter location in the United States using a spatial point pattern model, which models where events occur in latitude and longitude. Our analyses indicate that major air polluters are significantly more likely to be located near a state's downwind border than a control group of other industrial facilities, results that are robust to a wide variety of model specifications and measurement strategies. This effect is particularly pronounced for facilities with toxic air emissions. The observed pattern of polluter location varies systematically across states and time in ways that suggest it is responsive to public policy at both the national and state levels.

在联邦制体系下，州政府与企业均存在策略性布局污染设施的动机：即将污染所引发的环境与健康后果尽可能转嫁给其他管辖区域的居民。本研究借助空间点模式模型（spatial point pattern model），对美国境内大气污染企业的选址行为展开分析，该模型可对经纬度维度上的事件发生位置进行建模。分析结果表明，相较于对照组的其他工业设施，大型大气污染企业显著更倾向于选址于州域的下风向边境附近，且该结论在多种模型设定与测量策略下均保持稳健。这一效应在带有有毒大气排放的设施中表现得尤为突出。观测到的污染企业选址模式在各州与不同时期均呈现系统性差异，且该差异显示其选址行为会响应国家与州级层面的公共政策。