Firm behavior under imperfectly enforceable pollution standards and taxes

Assuming expected profit maximization, the behavior of the firm under imperfectly enforceable pollution standards is examined. Among other results, it is found that cost subsidies can reduce the size of violation and amount of wastes, and that the shape of the expected penalty function determines the direction of the firm response to tighter standards. Under imperfectly enforceable pollution taxes, it is found, among other results, that the firm's actual level of wastes is independent of proportional changes in the expected penalty for pollution tax evasion, and that the marginal cost of actual waste reduction equals the unit tax on reported wastes. Some normative aspects of the results are discussed.     

Uncertainty and the choice of pollution control instruments

This paper compares the relative efficiencies of pollution taxes, pollution standards, and the auctioning of pollution rights when the marginal damage function or marginal control cost are subject to uncertainty. In the first case, we find that all instruments yield the same expected social surplus. In the latter case, the choice of the optimal instrument depends, in general, on the relative elasticities of the marginal damage and marginal expected cost functions, on the way in which uncertainty enters the model, and on the distribution of the error term. Policy conclusions are derived.     

A relatively optimistic analysis of growth and pollution in a neoclassical framework

A series of neoclassical growth models, allowing for the fact that the production process results in pollution creation as well as useful output, is constructed and analyzed, placing particular emphasis on the role of technical progress. It is seen that firms not subject to pollution control are motivated to create an ever more polluting technology, but with control adequate technical progress allows exponential growth of per capita income with constant (or improving) environmental quality. If both limiting emissions and augmenting the absorptive capacity of the environment are available for pollution control, the marginal productivities of the two methods should be equalized.     

The impacts of economic restructuring and technology upgrade on air quality and human health in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China

Impacts of industrial restructuring and upgrade on air quality & health are assessed. An integrated approach combining different models is used for the assessment. Industrial technology upgrading is more effective than economic restructuring. Ozone is much more difficult to mitigate than PM_2.5. In this study, we have analyzed possible policy options to improve the air quality in an industrialized region—Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei (BTH) in China. A comprehensive model framework integrating GAINS-China, GEOS-Chem, and IMED/HEL is established to investigate the impacts of various policies on air pollution and health effects. The model establishes a data interface between economic input/output data and the emission inventory of atmospheric pollutants in the BTH region. Based on in-depth analyses of pollutant emission standards, industrial structure, pollution-intensive industries, and emission intensities in BTH and Pearl River Delta, several scenarios are constructed to explore the effectiveness of policy pathways in improving air quality in the BTH region. These scenarios include two categories: the category of “Industrial Technology Upgrade Policy” scenarios that focuses on reducing the emission intensity of industries vs. that of “Industrial Structure Adjustment Policy” scenarios that focuses on adjusting the proportion of industrial value-added. Our results show that the policy path of industrial technology upgrading can be effective and feasible, while economic structure adjustment shows complex and mixed effectiveness. We also find that the proposed policies and measures will be efficient to reduce pollution of primary pollutants and fine particles, but may not effectively mitigate ambient ozone pollution. Ozone pollution is projected to become increasingly severe in BTH, placing a challenge to pollution mitigation strategies that requires further adjustments to address it.     

Spatial economic theory of pollution control

In February 1972 the Nixon Administration proposed a tax on sulfur oxide emissions, beyond the Federal standards, of electric power plants. It was hoped that such a tax would discourage power plant locations in heavily polluted areas like urban areas. Assuming that such a tax varies over space because pollution is not invariant over space, the spatial theory of the firm is presented in this paper cast doubt on the efficacy of such a polltuion tax to achieve the desired goal of the administration. In particular it is shown that the cost-minimizing spatial firm would abate its pollution in response to a tax by either changing its location or by reducing waste through process change or by using a transportable abatement good if the tax savings due to the change in marginal abatement through location change per unit change in abatement is greater than or equal to transport rate on the abatement good. If the goal of the firm is to maximize profits, the desired outcome would follow if in addition to the fulfillment of the above condition the percentage change in the delivered price of raw material (situated at one end of the linear location space) per unit distance is greater than or equal to the percentage change in net marginal revenue, i.e., marginal revenue net of transport cost per unit of output. In simple terms, the conclusions of this paper raise doubts regarding the effectiveness of a pollution tax in curtailing pollution of a firm which is operating in a space economy. This outcome is peculiar to a spatial firm. Sufficient conditions also have been obtained when land input is included in the production function of the firm.     

基于盲数的水体沉积物潜在生态风险评价方法

基于生态风险评价系统中多种不确定性共存或交叉存在的特性,将盲数理论应用于水体沉积物潜在生态风险的评价研究。在将Hakanson潜在生态风险指数模型参数定义为盲参数的基础上,建立了沉积物潜在生态风险评价的盲数模型,并提出了污染程度和潜在生态风险等级识别盲数可靠性计算模型。根据上述盲数模型,不仅可以得到沉积物污染程度和潜在生态风险的可能取值区间,也可以得到各区间相应的可信度水平,进而定量计算待评价对象隶属于各评价等级的主观可能性大小。作为案例,将上述模型应用于巢湖十五里河河口沉积物中重金属潜在生态风险评价的研究。在得到沉积物中单个重金属污染物(Hg,Cd,Pb,Cu,Cr)隶属于污染程度各等级和潜在生态风险各等级可信度水平的基础上,得出十五里河河口处于较高生态风险水平的结论,相应的可信度为0.626。实例研究表明,以盲数理论评价沉积物的潜在生态风险,理论上可行,评价结论可信。     

Pollution taxes and standards: A continuum of quasi-optimal solutions

A generalized second-best problem, involving a perfectly competitive industry which produces a pollution type of externality, is examined. The pollution tax is allowed to assume an arbitrary value (possibly zero), while a pollution standard, set as a ratio of pollution to output, is determined by a first-order optimizing condition. The general condition for a set of quasi-optimal solutions includes the Pareto-optimal solution as a special case. It is also found that when the pollution tax is below the optimal level, the usual implication is that the standard should be set so that the marginal cost of pollution reduction exceeds the marginal external damage.     

Environmental Policy and International Trade when Governments and Producers Act Strategically

Some environmentalists express concern that trade liberalization may damage the environment by giving governments incentives to relax environmental policies to give domestic producers a competitive advantage. Support for such concern may be given by models of imperfectly competitive trade where there may be “rent-shifting” incentives for governments to relax environmental policies. But there are also incentives for producers to act strategically, e.g., through their investment in R&D, and in this paper I extend the literature on strategic environmental policy by allowing for strategic behavior by producers as well as governments. I show that (i) allowing for producers to act strategically on balance reduces the incentive for governments to act strategically; (ii) allowing governments to act strategically increases the incentive for producers to act strategically; (iii) welfare is lower when both parties act strategically; and (iv) strategic behavior by producers and governments is greater when governments use emission taxes than when they use emission standards.     

Intertemporal environmental management with a storable pollutant

A model is developed which allows decisions on generation and emission of an environmental pollutant to be separated in time. After deducing and discussing the necessary conditions for the socially optimal time pattern of generation and emission the possibility of using pollution taxation to motivate this optimal solution is investigated. The principle finding is that there exists no time pattern of fixed per-unit pollution taxes that will result in optimality. In particular, this demonstrates the failure of that pattern of fixed per-unit taxes which reflects the optimal marginal social cost of emission at each point in time.     

长江下游重点江段水质污染及对鱼类的毒性影响

通过对长江下游安庆、南京、镇江、南通４江段水质污染及其对鱼类毒性影响的调查监测可发现,长江下游江段主航道水质较好,符合国家地面水Ⅱ类水质标准．但近岸带水质由于受污染带的影响,水质污染较严重,其主要污染物为石油类和挥发酚等．上述这些污染物质对鱼类具有一定的毒性影响,其不但可引起鱼类的急性中毒,而且可诱发鱼类产生微核,并对鼠伤寒沙门氏菌ＴＡ９８菌株表现出一定的致突变性．同时在上述几个江段鱼体内可检出较高的蓄积性污染物的残留量．研究结果显示,长江下游江段正在遭受沿江诸多工业废水的污染,尤其是污染带的作用,并且这种污染对区域性渔业有一定的影响     

河流中的BOD模型及其应用

本文将入流点源或主要支流作为一条新河段 并将分布水源的影响范围视为整条河流,既可避免S—P方程无法反映沿河污染排放态的缺陷.又可解决BOD修正模型计算繁杂的缺陷.建立在此基础上的各种BOD分布模型,具有较好的回归性和可操作性,反映了有机物随时间和空间的迁移转化.这些模式的提出,可为评价和选择污染物控制方案,制订排放标准,提供一个定量的科学依展     

Rent dissipation in a limited-access common-pool resource: Experimental evidence

This paper examines group behavior in an experimental environment designed to parallel the conditions specified in noncooperative models of limited-access common-pool resources. Using experimental methods, we investigate the strength of theoretical models which predict that users of such resources will appropriate units at a rate at which the marginal returns from appropriation are greater than the marginal appropriation costs. Our results confirm the prediction of suboptimal accrual of rents and offer evidence on the effects of increasing investment capital available to appropriators.     

Optimal Institutional Arrangements for Transboundary Pollutants in a Second-Best World: Evidence from a Differential Game with Asymmetric Players

This paper uses a dynamic model with asymmetric players to explore the question: In a second-best world, should environmental regulations for transboundary pollutants be carried out locally or centrally? We find that combined payoffs are larger with decentralized control if payoffs are sufficiently heterogeneous and initial pollution stocks are sufficiently small. This result is obtained because the central authority applies one shadow price to pollution (i.e., it uses uniform standards), whereas local authorities use different shadow prices, and therefore different standards.     

A note on permits, standards, and technological innovation

Montero (J. Environ. Econom. Manage. 44 (2002) 23) contrasts the incentives to invest in new abatement technologies under different regulatory instruments and argues that one needs to consider the induced output effects that derive from lower abatement costs. Montero shows that, once one takes into account these effects on output, command-and-control instruments can generate stronger incentives to innovate than market-based instruments. This result rests on strategic output effects under command-and-control. However, he maintains that, under perfectly competitive conditions, market-based instruments will continue to weakly dominate command-and-control regulation. This note clarifies two issues raised by Montero. First, I use Montero's approach to show that in fact performance (concentration) standards will generate greater incentives to innovate than market-based instruments in perfectly competitive markets. One does not require strategic effects to get this result. Second, Montero abstracts from production costs and concentrates solely on abatement costs. He implicitly assumes that marginal production costs are constant. I show that some of Montero's results change once increasing marginal production costs are considered. When marginal costs are increasing, the benefit of additional output is tempered and market-based instruments again look more favorable.     

保安湖鱼体重金属和有机氯农药污染特征及健康风险评价

在湖北保安湖采集主要食用鱼类(团头鲂、鲫鱼、草鱼)样品,通过测定鱼体中的重金属(Cr、Cd、As、Pb、Hg、Cu、Zn)和有机氯农药(六六六(HCHs)、滴滴涕(DDTs))含量,基于不同评估模型分析了这3种鱼的污染特征和健康风险。结果显示,鱼样中Cr、Cu、Zn、As、Cd、Pb和Hg的含量分别为1.03～1.13、0.93～1.66、22.80～31.54、0.08～0.49、0.004～0.007、0.040～0.050和0.03～0.06 mg·kg~(-1);鱼样中HCHs、DDTs的含量为5.94～38.04和5.99～38.38 ng·g~(-1)ww。根据国家规定的有毒有害物质限量标准,团头鲂和鲫鱼中As分别超标0.2和3.9倍;鲫鱼体内HCHs和草鱼体内DDTs含量分别超标0.9和2.8倍;其他鱼样重金属和有机氯农药含量均未超过标准限值。总体来看,鲫鱼重金属严重污染,重金属综合污染程度的顺序是鲫鱼团头鲂草鱼;鲫鱼和草鱼体内有机氯农药(OCPs)达到重度污染,OCPs综合污染程度为草鱼鲫鱼团头鲂; 3种鱼样重金属和OCPs复合暴露条件下健康风险评估结果表明,食用3种鱼肉的致癌风险都大于10-6,即均存在一定的潜在致癌风险,致癌风险概率为鲫鱼草鱼团头鲂,同时,食用鲫鱼还存在非致癌健康风险,其污染来源及有效防治值得进一步研究。     

Interactive pollutants and joint abatement costs: Achieving water quality standards with effluent charges

This paper extends earlier work on the standards and prices approach to pollution control by considering simultaneously spatial considerations, interactive pollutants, and joint abatement costs. The form of environmental constraints appropriate to water pollution problems is discussed in detail and the implications for the standards and prices approach to water pollution control are assessed. The presence of interactive pollutants and joint abatement costs is shown to have important implications for both the theoretical properties and the implementation of the standards and prices approach.     

On estimating air pollution control benefits from land value studies

This paper deals with some unresolved issues in interpreting empirical property value/air pollution studies. A model is developed in which it is shown that in general regressions of property values on pollution variables do not identify the demand curve for clean air. However since the first derivative of the observed rent function is a locus of household equilibrium marginal willingnesses to pay, aggregate benefits can be calculated directly. The possibilities for obtaining approximate measures of aggregate benefits for nonmarginal changes in air quality are also discussed.     

Emission standards and price distortion

A simple model is presented which demonstrates that emission standards can either reduce or increase the distortions inherent in preregulatory relative prices. This model is used in conjunction with data for controlling air pollution in the St. Louis airshed under a least-cost set of emission standards. By applying a heuristic formula, it is concluded that this set of standards is distortion neutral. Although there is reason to believe that conventional emission standards are distortion reducing, it is clear that Pigouvian fees achieve technical efficiency in abatement as well as the elimination of price distortion.     

Separability,functional structure and aggregation for a class of models in environmental economics

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical bridge between the many-commodity general equilibrium models and the simpler one good-one pollutant models used in environmental economics. The interest is in determining the conditions that will permit a vector of pollutants (or goods) to be treated as if it were only one quantity, the amount of environmental pollution (or consumption). A general equilibrium model is constructed and the concepts of separability and functional structure are applied to examine the requirements for consistent aggregation. It is shown that this aggregation process may in general produce two entirely different sets of aggregate measures of pollution and consumption. This result is of theoretical and empirical significance. Alternative criteria for aggregation suggest that the aggregation depends upon very stringent features of the economy concerned.     

Survival analysis of stochastic single-species population models in polluted environments

This paper reports on the behaviors of single species models with and without pollution. We consider three basic models, one is deterministic, and others are stochastic. We first obtained the acute thresholds between local extinction and (stochastic) weakly persistent in the mean for population respectively. Then we study the attainability of population size 0 for the stochastic cases and show that a randomized non-autonomous logistic equation will be stochastic permanent under some conditions. Finally, we introduce some numerical simulink graphics to illustrate our main results.