The Effectiveness of Overlapping Pollution Regulation: Evidence from the Ban on Phosphate in Dishwasher Detergent
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This paper examines the failure of command-and-control pollution policies in the presence of overlapping regulations. We study the case of recent bans on phosphate in household dishwasher detergent. We show that the effectiveness of the bans in reducing effluent depends critically on existing pollution regulations at receiving wastewater treatment facilities. Some facilities face limits on how much phosphorus they can emit. As cost minimizers, limit facilities face no incentive to deviate from this standard. Using novel datasets on wastewater treatment facilities, we show that bans have weak effects on phosphorous effluent, especially in the most polluted waterways.