Watching Big Brothers: Can Nonprofit Oversight Mitigate Environmental Injustice?

• In Event: Emerging Research on the Nonprofit Sector

Abstract

Research Question: This study broadens the scope of environmental justice research by focusing on unequal access to environmental services rather than the placement of hazards, moving from policy design to public management. It particularly focuses on two research questions: (1) Does race influence local government officials’ responsiveness to drinking water service requests? (2) Can nonprofit oversight mitigate racial discrimination in environmental service delivery? 

Theory and Hypotheses: Racial discrimination is a key driver of environmental injustice, but its effects are difficult to identified, as empirical studies typically span neighborhood blocks, local jurisdictions, and even states. These levels analyses prevent scholars to closely observe individual discriminatory behaviors from public officials. A theoretical puzzle related to this topic involves micro-level environmental discrimination in the process of service delivery. The environmental disparities in service delivery worsen if public officials engage in racial discrimination against minority communities. Such officials might prioritize service requests from affluent non-minority communities while delaying or ignoring requests from minority ones. Therefore, examining how local government officials respond to environmental service requests is crucial for understanding micro-level environmental injustice.

Furthermore, my study proposes a potential solution to environmental discrimination: notifying government officials that their performance is being monitored by environmental nonprofits. As the third sector in civic society, nonprofit organizations serve as information brokers to hold governments accountable. Thus, it is worthwhile to further explore whether nonprofit oversight can increase officials’ responsiveness and reduce racial bias in requests for service information. I list the hypotheses below.

• H1: Municipal officials are less likely to respond to drinking water service information requests from Black citizens compared to those from White citizens.


• H2: Informing municipal officials that their performance is being monitored by environmental nonprofits will increase their response rate to drinking water service information requests.


• H3: Informing municipal officials that their performance is monitored by environmental nonprofits will decrease the response rate disparity between requests from Black and White citizens.

Data: To investigate, we will conduct a nationwide email audit field experiment involving over 20,000 municipal officials, including mayors, city council members, city managers, and water utility directors, from 2,219 U.S. municipalities managing Community Water Systems.

Experimental Design: Collaborating with the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nationally recognized nonprofit, we will leverage their publicly available water quality database to inform treatment interventions. Fictitious emails, randomized by sender race (Black or White) and oversight conditions (no oversight vs. mention of EWG monitoring), will request identical information about water contaminant removal. Using block randomization based on demographic characteristics at the municipal level, we create a 2×2 experimental design, yielding four treatment groups to examine how race and nonprofit oversight jointly influence service responsiveness.

Contribution: This study will provide the first empirical evidence of racial discrimination in environmental service delivery across the U.S., demonstrating how nonprofit organizations can act as accountability mechanisms. Our findings will inform local governance and nonprofit strategies to mitigate environmental inequity, offering both theoretical advancements and practical solutions for addressing micro-level discrimination in public service delivery.

Author

• Yixin Liu, Baruch College (City University of New York)
  Presenting Author