Oil Pollution Prevention and Enforcement Measures and their Effectiveness: A Survey of Empirical Research

Abstract

This paper reviews the empirical research on the effectiveness of oil pollution and measures in the United States. I consider both prevention or monitoring activities such as government inspections, and enforcement activities such as sanctions, remedial actions, and other mechanisms designed to punish and/or bring a firm into compliance to reduce the frequency and/or size of spills. Over the past 20 years, there have been a series of independent studies by academic researchers analyzing Coast Guard and oil spill data with the goal of determining the effectiveness of alternative monitoring, and penalty policies. While the overwhelming finding from these studies is that efforts reduce oil spills, questions abound about the proper mix of techniques and whether the costs of more would exceed the benefits.