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The benefits and costs of informal sector pollution control: Mexican brick kilns

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  • BLACKMAN, ALLEN
  • SHIH, JHIH-SHYANG
  • EVANS, DAVID
  • BATZ, MICHAEL
  • NEWBOLD, STEPHEN
  • COOK, JOSEPH

Abstract

In developing countries, the rapid proliferation of informal firms – low-technology unlicensed micro-enterprises – is having significant environmental impacts. Yet environmental management authorities typically ignore such firms. This paper estimates the annual net benefits (benefits minus costs) of controlling particulate emissions from a collection of informal brick kilns in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and from two of the city's leading formal industrial polluters. We find that the annual net benefits of controlling brick kiln emissions are substantial – in the tens of millions of dollars – and exceed those for the two formal industrial facilities by a significant margin. These results suggest that, in some cases, the conventional allocation of pollution control resources across formal and informal polluters may be suboptimal.

Suggested Citation

  • Blackman, Allen & Shih, Jhih-Shyang & Evans, David & Batz, Michael & Newbold, Stephen & Cook, Joseph, 2006. "The benefits and costs of informal sector pollution control: Mexican brick kilns," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(5), pages 603-627, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:11:y:2006:i:05:p:603-627_00
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Blackman, Allen & Bannister, Geoffrey, 1998. "Pollution Control in the Informal Sector: The Ciudad Juárez Brickmakers' Project," RFF Working Paper Series dp-98-15, Resources for the Future.
    2. Blackman, Allen, 2000. "Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2067-2082, December.
    3. Alberini, Anna & Cropper, Maureen & Fu, Tsu-Tan & Krupnick, Alan & Liu, Jin-Tan & Shaw, Daigee & Harrington, Winston, 1997. "Valuing Health Effects of Air Pollution in Developing Countries: The Case of Taiwan," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 107-126, October.
    4. Dasgupta, Nandini, 2000. "Environmental Enforcement and Small Industries in India: Reworking the Problem in the Poverty Context," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 945-967, May.
    5. Lauraine G. Chestnut & Bart D. Ostro & Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan, 1997. "Transferability of Air Pollution Control Health Benefits Estimates from the United States to Developing Countries: Evidence from the Bangkok Study," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(5), pages 1630-1635.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ummad Mazhar & Ceyhun Elgin, 2013. "Environmental Regulation, Pollution and the Informal Economy," SBP Research Bulletin, State Bank of Pakistan, Research Department, vol. 9, pages 62-81.
    2. Ceyhun Elgin & Oğuz Öztunalı, 2014. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for the Informal Sector of Turkey (1950-2009)," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(4), pages 471-485.
    3. Valentina A. Assenova & Olav Sorenson, 2017. "Legitimacy and the Benefits of Firm Formalization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 804-818, October.
    4. Blackman, Allen & Batz, Michael & Evans, David, 2003. "Maquiladoras, Air Pollution, and Human Health in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso," RFF Working Paper Series dp-03-18, Resources for the Future.
    5. Allen Blackman & Arne Kildegaard, 2010. "Clean technological change in developing-country industrial clusters: Mexican leather tanning," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 12(3), pages 115-132, September.
    6. Gökçer Özgür & Ceyhun Elgin & Adem Y. Elveren, 2021. "Is informality a barrier to sustainable development?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 45-65, January.
    7. Elgin, Ceyhun & Oztunali, Oguz, 2014. "Pollution and informal economy," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 333-349.
    8. Blackman, Allen, 2000. "Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2067-2082, December.
    9. Goel, Rajeev K. & Saunoris, James W., 2020. "Spatial spillovers of pollution onto the underground sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    10. Bagdja Muljarijadi & Rahmat Thio, 2008. "Economic Valuation of Urban Informal Activities: Case Study of Flea Markets in Bandung Municipality," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 200802, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised May 2008.
    11. Yi Wang & Valentin Marian Antohi & Costinela Fortea & Monica Laura Zlati & Reda Abdelfattah Mohammad & Farah Yasin Farah Abdelkhair & Waqar Ahmad, 2024. "Shadow Economy and Environmental Sustainability in Global Developing Countries: Do Governance Indicators Play a Role?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-23, November.
    12. Sudeshna Chattopadhyay & Sarmila Banerjee & Katrin Millock, 2010. "Pollution Control Instruments in the Presence of an Informal Sector," Post-Print halshs-00560558, HAL.
    13. Ceyhun Elgin & Oğuz Öztunalı, 2014. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for the Informal Sector of Turkey (1950-2009)," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(4), pages 471-485, September.
    14. Bento, Antonio M. & Jacobsen, Mark R. & Liu, Antung A., 2018. "Environmental policy in the presence of an informal sector," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 61-77.
    15. Zhimin Zhou, 2019. "The Underground Economy and Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Emissions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-20, May.

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