There are three industrial firms in a town Firm Initial Pollution Level Cost of Reducing Pollution by 1 Unit A 30 units $20 B C 40 units 20 units $30 $10 The government wants to reduce pollution to 60 units, so it gives each firm 20 tradable pollution permits. 1. Who sells permits and how many do they sell? Who buys permits and how many do they buy? Briefly explain why the sellers and buyers are each willing to do so. What is the total cost of pollution reduction in this situation? 2. How much higher would the costs of pollution reduction be if the permits could not be traded?

There are three industrial firms in a town Firm Initial Pollution Level Cost of Reducing Pollution by 1 Unit A 30 units $20 B C 40 units 20 units $30 $10 The government wants to reduce pollution to 60 units, so it gives each firm 20 tradable pollution permits. 1. Who sells permits and how many do they sell? Who buys permits and how many do they buy? Briefly explain why the sellers and buyers are each willing to do so. What is the total cost of pollution reduction in this situation? 2. How much higher would the costs of pollution reduction be if the permits could not be traded?

Principles of Microeconomics

7th Edition

ISBN:9781305156050

Author:N. Gregory Mankiw

Publisher:N. Gregory Mankiw

Chapter10: Externalities

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 10PA

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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?
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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?
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