Abhinav Shubham

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Area: Operations Management

Committee Members: Dr. Ravi Subramanian (Chair), Dr. Manpreet Hora, Dr. Basak Kalkanci, Dr. Vinod Singhal

Dissertation title: Disparities in Environmental Impacts and Occupational Hazards from Facility Operations

Research Overview:

In my research, I employ econometric modeling and causal inference approaches to understand the mechanisms by which the operations of industrial facilities contribute to socio-geographic inequities in non-financial measures of performance. My dissertation comprises two sections, each examining a distinct facet of inequity attributable to the operational decisions of industrial facilities: (1) asymmetric environmental burdens placed on minority communities; and, (2) asymmetric occupational risks and hazards faced by workers in such communities. Each section involves two components: (i) Identifying the existence of the inequities; and, (ii) Exploring their underlying mechanisms.

Section 1: An Empirical Investigation of Environmental Impacts and Practices of Facilities in Minority Communities.

Abstract: Environmental Justice (EJ) encapsulates the idea of fairness in the protection of individuals and communities from environmental hazards, regardless of economic or social background. EJ is relevant to the practice of operations management because of inequities that may result from socio-geographically disparate operational practices. My work studies an important research gap by investigating facility-level heterogeneity in the environmental impacts imposed on communities and in the use of the operational practices of impact avoidance and mitigation, thus advancing the emphasis on EJ from an aggregative geographic level to the facility level, where operational decisions are made. Specifically, I examine how similar facilities operating in minority and non-minority communities differ in the generation, mitigation, and avoidance of environmental impacts. I draw on comprehensive chemical release and environmental risk data from the US EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory and Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Model, and demographic data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. I employ matching and instrumented panel data methods in my analysis and find consistent evidence of greater environmental impacts by facilities operating in minority communities, which persists across a variety of robustness checks. However, I do not find significantly different environmental impact avoidance or mitigation levels by facilities in minority communities, compared to similar facilities in non-minority communities. While seemingly encouraging, such an approach is deficient from the standpoint of EJ because of the resulting persistence of contemporaneous disparities. For additional managerial and policy insights, I examine how environmental impact disparities vary by industry, managerial experience, and the use of advanced emissions monitoring technologies.  I subsequently build upon these insights and investigate potential mechanisms for such facility-level environmental impact disparities to arise. I identify three distinct mechanisms at play: (a) Process choice differences; (b) Regulatory insufficiency in permitting stringency and local oversight; and, (c) Organizational characteristics such as facility age, ownership and personnel, and credit history.

Section 2: An Empirical Investigation of Establishment-Level Operations and Occupational Hazards in Minority Communities.

Abstract: Racial and ethnic factors, coupled with unequal employment opportunities and differing establishment-level operational characteristics, may contribute to inequities in exposure to occupational safety hazards. In this paper, I study the disparities in occupational hazards and workplace safety outcomes between establishments operating in minority and non-minority communities. I investigate whether similar establishments operating across minority and non-minority communities pose disparate occupational injury risks. Furthermore, I also consider the role of external and internal interventions in moderating these disparities, specifically, random inspections by federal regulators and successful unionization efforts by employees. For this study, I assemble data from: (a) OSHA’s Open Data Initiative (ODI) survey responses; (b) Inspections and violations records in OSHA’s Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) database; (c) Planned inspection lists of OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting (SST) program; (d) National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) union certification results; and, (e) Demographic data from the US Census Bureau. I employ matching, differences-in-differences, and regression discontinuity methodologies to address various identification challenges. Additionally, I propose to investigate the mechanisms by which the noted disparities in occupational hazards may arise by leveraging data on firm-level characteristics and regional differences in regulatory programs for workplace safety.

Abhinav Shubham

PhD Student – Operations Management

Scheller College of Business | Suite 4322

Georgia Institute of Technology | 800 West Peachtree NW, Atlanta, GA-30308

Phone: 979-721-0660 | Email:  ashubham3@gatech.edu