Pollution abatement activities and traditional productivity

This study models the joint production of good and bad output production and calculates traditional productivity when bad output production is regulated and when it is unregulated. We apply this model to data for U.S. coal-fired electric power plants for 1985-1995 and compare rates of productivity and technical change to gain an understanding of the association between pollution abatement activities and traditional rates of productivity and technical change. While traditional productivity and technical change associated with abatement activities decline, we conclude they are not statistically significant. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.