IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v9y1990i3p367-380.html

A critical overview of the evolutionary approach to air pollution abatement policy

Author

Listed:
  • John Merrifield

    (Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Texas, San Antonio)

Abstract

Emerging flaws in existing air quality policies and changing air quality objectives are being addressed with piecemeal modifications. The evolving policy combines a command and control (CaC) core with add-on opportunities to trade pollution control responsibilities based on economic incentives. While the add-ons have greatly improved air quality policies, retention of the CaC core means that we are still paying far too much for air quality that is still unacceptable. Specific reasons why a CaC core limits emissions trading and reduces economic efficiency are discussed. They include: (1) the arbitrary and irrelevant nature of CaC-based assignment of pollution control responsibility to firms; (2) trading limits for emissions offsets in 'non-attainment areas'; (3) all-ornothing deadlines that have been extended three times; (4) sunk costs as a barrier to innovation; (5) the illusion that a CaC-based policy has lower inventory and monitoring costs. The conclusion is that there will be a big difference between the performance of the existing policy, even with some additional modifications, and the kind of market incentives-based policies advocated by economists. Economists' proposals are now before Congress in congressionally sponsored studies. Reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, in some form, is expected this congressional session.

Suggested Citation

  • John Merrifield, 1990. "A critical overview of the evolutionary approach to air pollution abatement policy," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(3), pages 367-380.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:9:y:1990:i:3:p:367-380
    DOI: 10.2307/3325281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/3325281
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2307/3325281?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. T. H. Tietenberg, 1978. "Spatially Differentiated Air Pollutant Emission Charges: An Economic and Legal Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(3), pages 265-277.
    2. Nelson, Robert H, 1987. "The Economics Profession and the Making of Public Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 49-91, March.
    3. Sue Anne Batey Blackman & William J. Baumol, 1980. "Modified Fiscal Incentives in Environmental Policy," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 56(4), pages 417-431.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Merrifield, John, 2002. "A general equilibrium analysis of the insurance bonding approach to pollution threats," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 103-115, January.
    2. Charles Howe, 1994. "Taxesversus tradable discharge permits: A review in the light of the U.S. and European experience," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(2), pages 151-169, April.
    3. Yong-Jin Cha, 1997. "Evolutionary Environmental Policy: An Analysis of the U.S. Air pollution Control Policy," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 102-114, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heine Klaus & Mause Karsten, 2003. "Politikberatung als informationsökonomisches Problem," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 223(4), pages 479-490, August.
    2. Arnott, Richard & Hochman, Oded & Rausser, Gordon C., 2008. "Pollution and land use: Optimum and decentralization," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 390-407, September.
    3. Jeffery Connor & Brett Bryan, 2005, 2005. "River Murray Dryland Corridor Revegetation Policy Options. Stage 1 Report for the River Murray Dryland Corridor Project," Natural Resource Management Economics 05_002, Policy and Economic Research Unit, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, Australia.
    4. Scott A. Beaulier & William J. Boyes & William S. Mounts, 2008. "The Influence of Economists on Public Attitudes toward Government," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 52(2), pages 65-71, October.
    5. Nelson, Robert H., 1997. "In memoriam: On the death of the 'market mechanism'," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 187-197, March.
    6. Stephen J. Bailey, 1994. "User-charges for Urban Services," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 31(4-5), pages 745-765, May.
    7. Bonnen, James T., 1989. "Relevancy Of The Social Sciences In The Policy Arena: Implications For Agricultural Economics," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 21(01), pages 1-10.
    8. Hochman, Oded & Rausser, Gordon C., 1999. "Zoning as a control of pollution in a spatial environment," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt0qq9849t, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    9. Bruno S. Frey, 2000. "Was Bewirkt die Volkswirtschaftslehre?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(1), pages 5-33, February.
    10. J. Bradford De Long, 1996. "Keynesianism, Pennsylvania Avenue Style: Some Economic Consequences of the Employment Act of 1946," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 41-53, Summer.
    11. Marina Riem, 2017. "Essays on the Behavior of Firms and Politicians," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 73, October.
    12. Brinkman, Anthony P., 2003. "The Ethical Challenges and Professional Responses of Travel Demand Forecasters," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt9c3330tt, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    13. Marion Fourcade & Rakesh Khurana, 2013. "From social control to financial economics," Post-Print hal-03473899, HAL.
    14. Firoozi, Fathali & Merrifield, John, 2003. "An optimal timing model of water reallocation and reservoir construction," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 165-174, February.
    15. J. Bradford De Long, "undated". "Keynesianism, Pennsylvania-Avenue Style: Some Economic Consequences of the 1946 Employment Act," J. Bradford De Long's Working Papers _105, University of California at Berkeley, Economics Department.
    16. Richard B. Howarth & Matthew A. Wilson, 2006. "A Theoretical Approach to Deliberative Valuation: Aggregation by Mutual Consent," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 82(1), pages 1-16.
    17. Andreas Eriksen, 2021. "Political values in independent agencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 785-799, July.
    18. Germeshausen, Robert, 2016. "Effects of Attribute-Based Regulation on Technology Adoption - The Case of Feed-In Tariffs for Solar Photovoltaic," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145712, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Peter V. Schaeffer & Scott Loveridge, 2009. "Regional Science and State Rural Policy Research," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 32(4), pages 509-522, October.
    20. Nick Hanley, 1992. "Are there environmental limits to cost benefit analysis?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(1), pages 33-59, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:9:y:1990:i:3:p:367-380. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.