Does environmental enforcement slow the treadmill of production? The relationship between large monetary penalties, ecological disorganization and toxic releases within offending corporations

Abstract

While treadmill of production theory is recognized as an important political economic explanation of environmental harms within sociology, it has not been examined in the context of green criminology. This research connects green criminology and treadmill of production by examining whether the state can limit the treadmill of production through enforcement. Specifically, this study asks whether large monetary penalties administered against corporations for environmental violations are negatively related to ecological additions. Fixed effects regression is used to examine the association between penalties and toxic releases. The models estimate within company variation before and after environmental penalties are assessed and holds constant any unchanging company attributes that may introduce significant specification error into the models. Results indicate that the relationship between penalties and toxic releases is weak at best, suggesting that penalties are more likely to legitimate the treadmill of production than to limit its environmental impacts.

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