This study explores the roles of enforcement in explaining management choices tied to regulatory compliance. Within this exploration, the study pursues two research objectives. First, it discerns the separate effects of punishment certainty and punishment severity on compliance decisions; this task is generally difficult especially since it requires constructing measures of the beliefs held by individuals or regulated businesses. Second, the study compares the two effects. The study’s most important contribution is to investigate these two issues using stated choice scenarios posed to environmental management professionals working at businesses operating within the Clean Water Act regulatory framework. Results reveal that regulated facilities respond to increases in fine size and fine likelihood with equal sensitivity.

本研究探讨了执法在解释与法规遵从性相关的管理选择方面的作用。在此探索中，该研究追求两个研究目标。首先，它区分了惩罚确定性和惩罚严重性对依从性决定的单独影响；这项任务通常很难完成，尤其是因为它需要构建个人或受监管企业持有的信念的度量。其次，研究比较了两种效果。这项研究最重要的贡献是使用陈述的选择方案调查这两个问题，这些选择方案是针对在《清洁水法》监管框架内运营的企业的环境管理专业人员提出的。结果表明，受监管的设施以相同的灵敏度对细小尺寸和细小可能性的增加做出响应。