Objective Excess emissions are pollutant releases that occur during periods of startups, shutdowns or malfunctions and are considered violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act. They are an important, but understudied and under-regulated, category of pollution releases given their frequency and magnitude. In this paper, we examine the demographic correlates of excess emissions, using data from industrial sources in Texas. Methods We conduct two complementary sets of analyses: one at the census tract level and one at the facility level. At the census tract level, we use a multinomial logit model to examine the relationships between racial, ethnic, and income characteristics and the incidence of excess emissions. At the facility level, we first estimate a logit model to examine whether these characteristics are associated with facilities that emit excess emissions, and then, conditional on the presence of excess emissions, we use ordinary least square regression to estimate their correlation with the magnitude of releases. Results Across our analyses, we find that the percentage of Black population and median household income are positively associated with excess emissions; percentage of college graduate, population density, median housing value, and percentage of owner-occupied housing unit are negatively associated with excess emissions. We, however, have not found a clear and significant relationship between the percentage of Hispanic population and excess emissions.

No abstract

Government-nonprofit partnerships outside the contracting relationship have become an increasingly important mechanism in financing and supporting public service provision.However, the relationship between these partnerships and public funding allocation remains unclear. We articulate two competing mechanisms-the substitution mechanism and the exchange mechanism-and empirically test them with a unique geocoded dataset of public park capital projects allocation in New York City. Our findings indicate that parks units supported by government-nonprofit partnerships are likely to receive more public capital project funding, which supports the exchange mechanism. In addition, larger parks with a more populous community surrounding them get more public capital funding allocation. As governments at all levels are seeking new ways to finance and manage public service provision, many more empirical studies in other service subsectors, time periods, and geographical contexts are required to draw more general conclusions about how government-nonprofit partnerships may influence public funding allocation and how such dynamics may compromise or promote equitable public service provision.

Individuals' risk perceptions shape their attitudes and behaviors, and to the extent that governments respond to public demands, they also influence public policy priorities. Conversely, risk misperceptions-that is, when risk perceptions do not align with realities-may lead to suboptimal behaviors and inefficient public policy. This that targeted and more nuanced strategies are required to correct misperceptions.