The Economic Approach to Environmental and Natural Resources, 3e

Theory and Tools of Environmental and Resource Economics 3e Part I

It is becoming increasingly clear that reliance on the command-and-control approach will not, by itself allow the EPA to achieve its mission…To maintain momentum in meeting environmental goals, we must move beyond prescriptive approaches by increasing our use of policy instruments such as economic incentives. Properly employed, economic incentives can be a powerful force for environmental protection – EPA administrator William K. Reilly

Introduction • The issue is not whether the government should intervene, but what form government intervention should take. • While economic incentives have not had dramatic success, this chapter will explore the potential for correctly structured economic incentives to achieve an improvement in environmental quality at the lowest possible cost.

Pigouvian Taxes • A.C. Pigou (1938) argued that an externality cannot be mitigated by contractual negotiation between the affected parties. • Pigou argued that direct coercion by the government or judicious use of taxes should be used against the offending party. • These taxes are referred to as Pigouvian taxes.

Pigouvian Taxes • The basic principle behind the use of externality taxes is that the tax eliminates the divergence between the Marginal Private Cost (MPC) and the Marginal Social Cost (MSC). • Consider Figure 3.1. • Q1 represents the market equilibrium (where MPC=MPB), and • Q* represents the optimal level of output (where MSC=MSB).

Figure 3.1 – An Externality Tax on Output

Pigouvian Taxes • An externalities tax equal to the divergence between MPC and MSC would raise the steel firms’ private costs. • The tax would shift the MPC curve by an amount equal to the distance from a to b in Figure 3.1. • The market would arrive at an optimal equilibrium of Q*. • This is known as internalizing an externality. • Subsequent work has shown the tax should be placed on the externality (such as pollution emissions) rather than on output.

Coase Theorem • Ronald Coase (1960) argued that not only is a tax unnecessary, it is often undesirable. • Coase argued: • The market will automatically generate the optimal level of the externality. • This optimal level of the externality will be generated regardless of the initial allocation of property rights.

Coase Theorem • Coase’s example to illustrate his theory is based on the interaction of a cattle rancher and a crop farmer. • Cattle occasionally leave rancher’s property and damage farmer’s crop. • Coase argued that the farmer and rancher will reach an agreement that will make them both better off. • Either the rancher will accept payment to reduce the size of the herd or farmer will accept payment to cover cost of crops lost. • And this will happen without government intervention.

Coase Theorem • One critical assumption that Coase makes is that transactions costs are insignificant. • Transactions costs are costs associated with arriving at an agreement (the costs of negotiation). • These may be small for a 2 party agreement but would be very large for an externality such as sulfur dioxide emissions across North America.

Coase Theorem • The number of participants makes transactions costs important. • One way to reduce transactions costs is to appoint an agent who acts in behalf of a large number of people. • The use of agents is associated with its own problems: • Free riders – don’t share in cost, but share benefits. • Often it is difficult for individuals to identify the agent that will best represent their view point.

Coase Theorem • Another problem associated with the Coase Theorem is the need for asymmetric pricing. • Maximizing social welfare requires that the generator of a negative externality be charged a price, while the victim remains uncompensated. • This means that an efficient market cannot develop, as a market requires the same price for the buyer and the seller.

Coase Theorem • Another problem associated with the Coase example is that there is only one victim. • In a multiple victim/generator model, the allocation of property rights would signal entry and exit in response to those rights. • If ranchers have the right to let their cattle roam without worrying about paying damages, then there will be an increase in the number of ranchers, and more damage.

Coase Theorem • A final problem associated with the Coase Theorem is the existence of income effects. • Income effects imply that the higher an individual’s standard of living, the greater his or her marginal valuation of a normal good or service. • Being free from a detrimental externality raises an individual’s standard of living, the marginal valuation of the damages depends on the definition of property rights.

Types of Government Intervention • There are five broad classes of government intervention: • Moral suasion • Direct production of environmental quality • Pollution prevention • Command and control regulations • Economic incentives • Each of these represents a different philosophy toward the role of government in society.

Moral Suasion (persuasion) • This term is used to describe government attempts to influence behavior without actually stipulating any rules. • Effectiveness depends upon the extent to which individuals believe it is in their collective interest to do so. • Successful programs include Woodsy Owl’s “Give a hoot, don’t pollute” and Smokey Bear’s “Only you can prevent forest fires.”

Direct Production of Environmental Quality • Includes • reforestation, • breaching of dams, • stocking of fish, • creation of wetlands, • treatment of sewage, and • toxic waste site cleanup. • These are largely ameliorative actions.

Pollution Prevention • Not designed to control the externality, but to address a related market failure of imperfect information. • Basic premise is that combined efforts of government agencies, national laboratories, university and private firms can lead to development of innovative and beneficial technologies. • These programs emphasize being proactive in reducing pollution.

Command and Control Regulation • These place constraints on the behavior of households and firms. • Constraints generally take the form of limits on inputs or outputs in the consumption or production process. • Examples include: • Requiring sulfur-removing scrubbers on the smokestacks of coal-burning utilities. • Prohibitions against dumping of toxic substances.

Economic Incentives • Economic incentives simply make self interest coincide with social interest. • Examples include: • Pollution taxes • Pollution subsidies • Marketable pollution permits • Deposit-refund systems • Performance bonds • Liability systems

Choosing the Correct Level of Environmental Quality • Zero pollution is not possible for two reasons: • The reduction of pollution will have opportunity costs. • The Law of Mass Balance makes a choice of zero physically impossible. • The Law of Mass Balance states that the mass of outputs of any activity are equal to the mass of inputs. • Special case of Conservation of Energy. • Any consumption or production activity must produce waste.

Choosing the Correct Level of Environmental Quality • The desired level of pollution will be a function of the social costs associated with pollution. • The first of these is the damage that pollution creates by degrading the physical, natural, and social environment. • The second is the cost of reducing pollution and includes the opportunity costs of resources used to reduce pollution and the value of foregone outputs.

The Marginal Damage Function • The marginal damage function represents the damages that pollution generates by degrading the environment. • Even if these impacts are not quantifiable, the marginal damage function is useful for thinking about the relationship between environmental change and social welfare.

Figure 3.3 Marginal Damage Function

Marginal Damage Function • The marginal damage function in Figure 3.3 specifies the damages associated with an additional unit of pollution. • The total damages generated by a particular level of pollution is represented by the area under the marginal damage function.

Marginal Damage Function • The increasing slope of the marginal damage function indicates how damage changes with each additional unit of pollution. • An upward sloping marginal damage function indicates that as the level of pollution becomes larger, the damages associated with the marginal unit of pollution become larger.

Marginal Abatement Cost Function • Abatement Costs are those costs associated with reducing pollution to a lower level so that there are fewer damages. • Abatement costs include: • Labor • Capital • Energy needed to lessen emissions • Opportunity costs from reducing levels of production or consumption.

Marginal Abatement Cost Function • The marginal abatement cost function represents the costs of reducing pollution by one more unit. • In the following figure, Eu represents the level of pollution that would be generated in absence of any government intervention. • As pollution is reduced below Eu, the marginal abatement cost increases.

Marginal Abatement Cost Function

Marginal Abatement Cost Function • Marginal abatement costs rise as cheaper options for reducing pollution are exhausted and more expensive steps must be taken. • The decreasing slope indicates that the costs of reducing pollution increases at an increasing rate. • A high vertical intercept indicates that the cost of eliminating the last few units of pollutants would be extremely high.

The Optimal Level of Pollution • Optimal level of pollution minimizes the total social costs of pollution (the sum of total abatement costs and total damages). • This level occurs at the point where marginal abatement costs are equal to marginal damages.

The Optimal Level of Pollution

The Optimal Level of Pollution • If the level of emissions is less than E1, then the marginal abatement costs are greater than the marginal damages that the unit of pollution would have caused. • It doesn’t make sense to reduce pollution. • If the level of emissions are greater than E1, then the marginal damages are greater than the marginal abatement costs associated with reducing pollution by one unit. • Society is better off eliminating that unit of pollution.

Social Costs When Pollution Level is Greater than Optimal

Social Costs When Pollution Level is Greater than Optimal • The optimal level of pollution is E1. • The actual level of pollution is E2. • Total costs associated with pollution have been increased by the area of triangle abc. • This represents marginal damages greater than marginal abatement costs for the range of pollution emissions between E1 and E2.

Social Costs When Pollution Level is Less Than the Optimal

Social Costs When Pollution Level is Less than Optimal • The optimal level of pollution is E1. • The actual level of pollution is E3. • Total costs associated with pollution have been increased by the area of triangle ade. • This represents marginal abatement costs greater than marginal damage for the range of pollution emissions between E1 and E3.

Pursuing Environmental Quality with Command and Control Policies • One way to achieve an optimal level of pollution is to mandate action to achieve the desired level of pollution. • Critics have argued that command and control regulations generate more abatement costs than necessary. • Consider Figure 3.9 where both polluters are required to reduce pollution by 50 percent.

Pursuing Environmental Quality with Command and Control Policies

Pursuing Environmental Quality with Command and Control Policies • The aggregate marginal abatement cost function (societal marginal abatement cost function) is the horizontal summation of the individual marginal abatement cost functions. • With no environmental regulation, polluter 1 would emit 10 units and polluter 2 would emit 6. • A requirement to reduce emissions by 50%, regardless of cost, would reduce polluter 1 to 5 units and polluter 2 to 3 units.

Pursuing Environmental Quality by Equating Marginal Abatement Costs • When both polluters are required to reduce emissions by 50%, regardless of marginal abatement costs, polluter 2 incurs a higher cost ($3) than polluter 1 ($2). • Society’s total abatement costs can be lowered by keeping total emissions constant, but reallocating level of emissions by marginal abatement costs. • The optimal level of emissions will be where marginal abatement costs are equal, for a given level of emission.

Pursuing Environmental Quality by Equating Marginal Abatement Costs

Pursuing Environmental Quality by Equating Marginal Abatement Costs • Since polluter 2 has higher marginal abatement costs, polluter 2 should be allowed to emit more, and polluter 1 will be required to pollute less. • Polluter 1 reduces pollution by one half unit (to 4 ½) and polluter 2 increases pollution by one half unit (to 3 ½). • Polluter 1’s marginal abatement costs increase and polluter 2’s marginal abatement costs decrease. • Total abatement costs are minimized.

The Role of Command and Control Policies • Despite their inability to equate marginal abatement costs across polluters, command and control policies may still be the most desirable policy instrument under the following circumstances: • When monitoring costs are high. • When the optimal level of emissions is at or near zero. • During random events or emergencies that can change the relationship between emissions and damages.

The Role of Command and Control Policies • While it might be possible to achieve an optimal amount of litter through the use of a tax or per person allocation, this would require the “litter police”. • It is easier to make ALL littering illegal and establish a punitive fine for those caught littering. • The fine multiplied by the probability of being caught would be factored into the choice to litter.

The Role of Command and Control Policies • When the optimal level of pollution is zero or at zero, direct controls make sense. • This is the case for extremely dangerous pollutants, such as heavy metals and radioactive waste. • Damages associated with these pollutants are quite severe. • Direct controls also make sense in other cases where initial damages are quite high compared to initial marginal abatement costs. • An example is CFC’s, where accumulated amounts are dangerous but there are low cost alternatives.

The Role of Command and Control Policies • Emergency situations may make direct controls the preferable policy instrument. • These events occur in random and unpredictable fashion. • Examples include smog alerts and droughts.

Pursuing Environmental Quality with Economic Incentives • Economists advocate policies based on economic incentives for two primary reasons: • Economic incentives minimize total abatement costs by equating marginal abatement costs across polluters and encouraging a broader array of abatement options. • Economic incentives encourage more research and development into abatement technologies and alternatives to the activities that generate the pollution.

The Economic Approach to Environmental and Natural Resources, 3e