Community Pressure and the Spatial Redistribution of Pollution: The Relocation of Toxic Releasing Facilities

This paper analyzes the effects of community pressure on the relocation of toxic-releasing facilities by using the public disclosure of toxic release information through the Toxic Release Inventory in 1990 as a natural experiment. We find that pressure from communities with high population density, high income, and high educational attainment has a statistically significant effect on the likelihood of relocation by toxic releasing facilities. These facilities are more likely to relocate into communities with lower population density, income, and educational attainment. We also find evidence that smaller facilities are more likely to relocate and that they grow faster after relocating and thus emit more toxic pollutants. The spatial pattern of the relocation decision shows that these differential effects of community pressure lead to a worsening of environmental injustice. Our findings provide indirect evidence of an unintended mechanism through which environmental information disclosure worsens environmental injustice.