Chapter 12: Q.30 (page 297)
Would environmentalists favor command-and-control policies as a way to reduce pollution? Why or why not?
Yes, Environmentalists favor command and control policies as laws are made under these policies are very effective.
Over 30 million students worldwide already upgrade their learning with Vaia!
All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.
Get started for free
In a market without environmental regulations, will the supply curve for a firm account for private costs, external costs, both, or neither? Explain.
A country called Sherwood is very heavily covered with a forest of 50,000 trees. There are proposals
to clear some of Sherwood’s forest and grow corn, but obtaining this additional economic output will have an environmental cost from reducing the number of trees. Table 12.11 shows possible combinations of economic output and environmental protection.
a. Sketch a graph of a production possibility frontier with environmental quality on the horizontal axis, measured by the number of trees, and the quantity of economic output, measured in corn, on the vertical axis.
b. Which choices display productive efficiency? How can you tell?
c. Which choices show allocative efficiency? How can you tell?
d. In the choice between T and R, decide which one is better. Why?
e. In the choice between T and S, can you say which one is better, and why?
f. If you had to guess, which choice would you think is more likely to represent a command-and-control
environmental policy and which choice is more likely to represent a market-oriented environmental policy, choice Q or S? Why?
What is command-and-control environmental regulation?
As the extent of environmental protection expands, would you expect marginal costs of environmental protection to rise or fall? Why or why not?
Suppose a city releases million gallons of raw sewage into a nearby lake. Table shows the total costs of cleaning up the sewage to different levels, together with the total benefits of doing so. (Benefits include environmental, recreational, health, and industrial benefits.)
Total Cost (in thousands of dollars) | Total Benefits (in thousands of dollars) | |
16 million gallons | Current situation | Current situation |
12 million gallons | 50 | 800 |
| 8 million gallons | 150 | 1300 |
| 4 million gallons | 500 | 1650 |
| 0 gallons | 1200 | 1900 |
a. Using the information in Table , calculate the marginal costs and marginal benefits of reducing sewage emissions for this city. See Production, Costs, and Industry Structure if you need a refresher on how to calculate marginal costs.
b. What is the optimal level of sewage for this city?
c. Why not just pass a law that firms can emit zero sewage? After all, the total benefits of zero-emissions exceed the total costs.
What do you think about this solution?
We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.
