Publisher's Synopsis
Superfund is roundly criticized as being wasteful and inefficient, excessively stringent and expensive, and plagued by high transaction costs, serious administrative deficiencies and long delays. Despite these criticisms, Superfund has been the subject of little dispassionate study. This book brings together theoretical and empirical work from the research community on four issues central to the evaluation of Superfund: cleanup standards; the liability regime; transaction costs; and natural resource damages.;Three empirical studies examine the US Environmental Protection Agency's cleanup decisions, paying particular regard to the role of benefit-cost considerations. Liability issues are assessed in two chapters, one a theoretical analysis of the relative merits of joint-and-several liability as compared with nonjoint liability, the other an examination of the likely financial impact of three alternative liability schemes upon various sectors of the national economy.
