3. Assume that scientific studies provide you with the following information concerning the benefits and costs of sulfur dioxide emissions: Benefits of abating (reducing) emissions: MB=500-20A Costs of abating emissions: MC=200+5A where A is the quantity abated in millions of tons and the benefits and costs are given in dollars per ton. a. What is the socially efficient level of emissions abatement?

3. Assume that scientific studies provide you with the following information concerning the benefits and costs of sulfur dioxide emissions: Benefits of abating (reducing) emissions: MB=500-20A Costs of abating emissions: MC=200+5A where A is the quantity abated in millions of tons and the benefits and costs are given in dollars per ton. a. What is the socially efficient level of emissions abatement?

Micro Economics For Today

10th Edition

ISBN:9781337613064

Author:Tucker, Irvin B.

Publisher:Tucker, Irvin B.

Chapter14: Environmental Economics

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 13SQP

See similar textbooks

Similar questions

Suppose you want to put a dollar value on the external costs of carbon emissions from a power plant. What information or data would you obtain to measure the external [not social] cost?
From an economic perspective, is it sound policy to pursue a goal of zero pollution? Why or why not?
A country called Sherwood is very heavily covered with a forest of 50,000 trees. There are proposals to clear some of Sherwoods forest and grow com, 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. 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. Which choices display productive efficiency? How can you tell? Which choices show allocative efficiency? How can you tell? In the choice between T and R, decide which one is better. Why? In the choice between T and S, can you say which one is better, and why? 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?
Suppose a city releases 16 million gallons of raw sewage into a nearby lake. Table 12.8 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.) Using the information in Table 12.8, 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. What is the optimal level of sewage for this city? Why not just pass a law that films can emit zero sewage? After all, the total benefits of zero emissions exceed the total costs.
Consider two approaches to reducing emissions of CO2 into the environment from manufacturing industries in the United States. In the first approach, the U.S. government makes it a policy to use only predetermined technologies. In the second approach, the U.S. government determines which technologies are cleaner and subsidizes their use. Of the two approaches, which is the command-and-control policy?
Is zero pollution an optimal goal? Way or why not?
Refer to Table 12.2. The externality created by the refrigerator production was 100. However, once we accounted for both the private and additional external costs, the market price increased by only 50. If the external costs were 100 why did the price only increase by 50 when we accounted for all costs?
An emissions tax on a quantity of emissions from a film is not a command-and-control approach to reducing pollution. Why?
In the Land of Purity, there is only one form of pollution, called gunk. Table 12.14 shows possible combinations of economic output and reduction of gunk, depending on what kinds of environmental regulations you choose. Sketch a graph of a production possibility frontier with environmental quality on the horizontal axis, measured by the percentage reduction of gunk, and with the quantity of economic output on the vertical axis. Which choices display productive efficiency? How can you tell? Which choices show allocative efficiency? How can you tell? In the choice between K and L, can you say which one is better and why? In the choice between K. and N, can you say which one is better, and why? If you had to guess, which choice would you think is move likely to represent a command-and-control environmental policy and which choice is more likely to represent a market-oriented environmental policy, choice L or M? Why?
Classify the following pollution-control policies as command-and-control or market incentive based. A state emissions tax on the quantity of carbon emitted by each firm. The federal government requires domestic auto companies to improve car emissions by 2020. The EPA sets national standards for water quality. A city sells permits to films that allow them to emit a specified quantity of pollution. The federal government pays fishermen to preserve salmon.
How can high-income countries benefit from covering much of the cost of reducing pollution created by low-income countries?
Would environmentalists favor command-and-control policies as a way to reduce pollution? Why or why not?