Evaluating the Regulatory Burden: Pollutant Release and Transfer Reporting Costs

Abstract

Environmental information disclosure instruments inevitably also carry information costs. It is important to pay attention to these costs because of the competitiveness issues connected with the regulatory burden of the private sector or the overall cost-effectiveness of different types of environmental regulation from the public sector point of view. We undertake an ex-post analysis to quantify and analyse reporting costs of private sector induced by the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). We focus on the case of the Czech Republic. The average annual reporting costs, additional to other reporting duties, are € 365 per facility. The Czech PRTR comprises 8 times more facilities than required by the European law, and thereby increases correspondingly the total reporting costs. The best predictor variable of the costs is the need for measuring or calculating additional releases or transfers beyond the information requirements of other registers.