El efecto del regulador y de la comunidad sobre el desempeño ambiental de la industria en Bogotá, Colombia

This article presents the existing relations among three agents that influence water industrial pollution in the city of Bogotá: the firms, the environmental regulatory agency, and the community. Taking into consideration that the decisions of these agents can be mutually dependent, a model of simultaneous equations was used to find the determinants of environmental performance of companies, control by the regulator, and pressure of communities on companies. The results show that, unlike other cities in developing countries, the environmental performance of industry in Bogotá depends significantly on the control carried out by the regulator, and not on the pressure of the affected communities. It was also found that the level of pressure exerted by communities depends on their socioeconomic characteristics. Additionally, it was found that the decisions of companies on their own environmental management are affected by their position in the pollution ranking that the regulator publishes on the Internet.