CHAPTER 3: TEST BANK

SOME ANSWERS AND COMMENTS ON THE TEXT DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Businesses and consumers pollute because there is an economic incentive to do so.

Pollution, whether it is due to highly polluting energy sources, failure to use certain
technology, or refusal to adapt conservation measures, occurs because it is the
cheaper alternative. Consumers who burn their garbage, buy non-recyclables, or
discard their newspapers do so because it is cheaper (in time or money) than the other
alternatives.

2. The beer and paper example shows how resources are over-allocated to the
production of goods whose production entails pollution, and how resources are under-
allocated to the production of goods whose production requires the additional expense
of cleaning up someone else’s pollution.

3. Costs are varied and include:

 the cost of more expensive, but less polluting energy sources and other inputs
 the cost of anti-pollution technology, including scrubbers for smokestacks,
catalytic converters for cars and so on
 the cost of pollution clean-up
 the cost of maintaining safe landfills
 the cost of time in consumer recycling
 the cost of layoffs in industries which reduce their output in response to rising
costs of production through pollution standards or fees
 the cost to businesses in the form of falling profits as costs of production rise
 the cost to consumers in the form of higher prices that they pay for products
produced by firms with rising costs of production through pollution standards
or fees

We should not be willing to sacrifice everything in order to eliminate all pollution

because we need to balance the costs and benefits of pollution control. (This is the
economist’s argument. Students will have their own arguments as to why we should
eliminate all pollution!)

4. While local government is “closer to the governed”, the federal government has the
resources for and the national interest in pollution control, especially because
pollution generated in one area can easily spread to other areas.

5. Negative externalities: residential locations near prisons or landfills, loss of wildlife

and aesthetic beauty as highways and shopping malls are built in rural areas. Positive
externalities: business firms that provide child care for their workers’ children,
 business firms that train workers or support their further education, business firms
and residences that beautify their property (trees, flowers, etc.).

6. Standards: These seem simple and straight-forward, but uniform standards fail to
address the pollution harm to clean versus already polluted water and slow versus fast
moving water, and do not account for the variations in marginal costs of pollution
control. Specific standards are better, but are difficult to implement. Incentive-based
pollution control (taxes, subsidies, improved convenience of recycling, pollution
permits, etc.) allows research and development of least-cost technology and
production processes to control pollution, allows the costs as well as the benefits of
pollution control to be considered, and often results in the largest polluters having
more incentive to reduce pollution than small polluters.

7. It is appropriate that consumers pay a higher price for a product whose production
entails pollution because consumers are indirectly causing this pollution when they
buy the product. (It is also appropriate that firms receive lower profits when their
costs of production go up with a fee because they are directly causing the pollution.)

8. Cost-benefit analysis compares the costs of an activity (such as pollution control)

with the benefits of the activity. Long run cost-benefit analysis would differ from
short run analysis because the long run includes the benefits to future generations of a
cleaner, safer environment and natural resource base.

9. We think so.

10. Citizens of Third World countries generally do not have the luxury of environmental
protection. Environmental protection is expensive, and Third World residents and
countries have little income. When forests are cleared to create farms, timber cut
down to create export earnings, and environmentally-unsound mining used to create
jobs, it is because these are necessary for the nation and its residents. Remember that
environmental quality is a luxury good.

11. A good question for students to answer!

SUGGESTED TEST QUESTIONS

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Pollution causes:
a. spillover costs.
b. inefficient resource allocation.
c. an inequitable burden of costs placed on society.
d. all of the above.
2. Assuming that the production of paint results in chemical pollution of the land and
water and that Sp represents the private supply curve and Ss represents the social
supply curve, the socially optimal level of output in the graph below is:

a. a b. b c. c d. zero

3. The earliest efforts to control pollution in the U.S. through legislation came from:
a. city governments.
b. state governments.
c. the federal government.
d. none of the above.

4. According to the textbook, the decisions about pollution control should be made by:
a. city governments.
b. county governments.
c. state governments.
d. the federal (and international) governments.

5. Which of the following is more likely to encourage research into new technologies
and lower cost methods of meeting environmental quality?
a. performance standard
b. design standard
c. technology standard
d. business standard

6. Enforcement activities of pollution control include:

a. monitoring.
b. field surveillance.
c. remedies.
d. all of the above.
7. A tax on production that causes air pollution is called:
a. a pollution permit.
b. a specific standard.
c. an effluent fee.
d. an emissions fee.

8. Why is over-allocating resources to a particular market a problem?

a. Society would value the other products produced by these scarce
resources more than it values the product produced in the market where
the over-allocation occurs.
b. Society values other products less than it values the product produced in the
market where the over-allocation occurs.
c. Society should balance the over-allocation of resources in some markets with
under-allocation of resources in others.
d. It is not really a problem.

9. Technology forcing:
a. allows firms to choose the type of technology to be used in pollution control.
b. requires firms to use specific types of technology to be used in pollution
control.
c. forces firms to purchase the technology to be used in pollution control.
d. forces firms to produce the technology to be used in pollution control.

10. Liberals are more likely to:

a. accept the government role in pollution control.
b. leave pollution control to market forces.
c. favor pollution control by cities rather than by the federal government.
d. favor pollution fees over standards.

Answer the next two questions on the basis of the following graph. D is the demand
curve and S is the supply curve based on all costs including spillover costs.
Price
S

D
Quantity
Q1 Q2

11. If Q1 is the equilibrium output:

a. resources are over-allocated to this market.
b. resources are under-allocated to this market.
c. there is no misallocation of resources to this market.
d. this was not discussed in the book.
12. If Q2 is the equilibrium output:
a. resources are over-allocated to this market.
b. resources are under-allocated to this market.
c. there is no misallocation of resources to this market.
d. this was not discussed in the book.

13. The creation of a market for pollution permits will:

a. completely eliminate air and water pollution.
b. cause firms to seek out low-cost pollution-reducing technologies.
c. continually increase air and water pollution.
d. all of the above.

14. If an emissions fee equal to the spillover cost of pollution by a firm is levied against
the firm:
a. it will eliminate the over-allocation of resources done by the firm.
b. it will increase the price of the firm’s product.
c. it will decrease the firm’s output.
d. all of the above.

15. Economists and environmentalists differ in that:

a. environmentalists want to eliminate all pollution, but economists believe
some pollution is acceptable if society values the production of the goods
causing the pollution highly enough.
b. environmentalists care about the environment, but economists do not.
c. environmentalists do not care about the economy, but economists do.
d. none of the above.

16. Two reasons that the environmental movement developed in modern, industrialized
countries are that:
a. there was no pollution prior to the 1900s, and less developed countries simply
cannot afford environmental regulation.
b. pollution control is a luxury good, and the type of pollutants we have in
modern times are more toxic than pollutants used to be.
c. increased population has stressed the environment, and people in the U.S.
have greatly decreased their consumption per person as a result.
d. This was not discussed in the text.

17. Utilities were granted the right to buy and sell pollution permits by the:
a. Superfund Law of 1980.
b. Market for Negative Externalities Law of 1996.
c. Clean Air Act of 1990.
d. Acid Rain Act of 1987.
18. Among problems with the administration of the Superfund Law is that:
a. only a small percentage of the toxic waste sites designated for cleanup have
actually been cleaned up.
b. standards for cleanup are too low, so sites really are not cleaned up enough to use
again.
c. improper disposal of toxic waste increased instead of decreasing.
d. it bankrupted many businesses.

19. A major problem faced by community recycling programs is:

a. people absolutely refuse to recycle.
b. finding a market for recyclable materials.
c. incentives simply do not work.
d. most such programs make recycling very convenient.

20. Charging $3.00 a bag to put a household’s bag of garbage in the municipal dump is an
example of:
a. highway robbery.
b. a disincentive to recycle.
c. an incentive to recycle.
d. an inefficient recycling program.

True-and-False Questions

F 1. Generally speaking, the economist’s view is that all pollution should be

eliminated.

F 2. Externalities always involve costs that are shifted from the private market
onto society.

T 3. Environmental quality is a luxury good.

F 4. Over-allocation of resources occurs in markets that are harmed by pollution

caused in another market.

T 5. The social costs of production that causes pollution include both the private
costs of production and the spillover costs of pollution.

T 6. A design standard specifies not only the required level of performance (in
controlling pollution), but also the means to reach that performance.

T 7. Certification enables a business firm to produce a product, knowing that it

meets pollution standards in controlling pollution.

F 8. Uniform standards are more effective than specific standards in controlling

pollution.
T 9. Rising marginal costs of pollution control means that it costs more to remove
an additional unit of pollution when pollution levels are already low.

T 10. Effluent and emissions fees are more likely to result in least-cost pollution
control than the use of standards.

T 11. People are more likely to recycle if recycling is convenient for them.

F 12. If the supply of recyclable materials increases, the price of these materials will
increase.

T 13. A problem with the early administration of the Superfund Law was that sites
were not considered cleaned up unless they were sufficiently clean to be used
for any purpose.

T 14. Low quantities of production may not cause pollution because the earth can
cleanse itself of small amounts of waste.

F 15. Pollution permits usually result in firms that are not heavy polluters to begin
with doing all the cleanup.

F 16. Benefit-cost analysis is useless in evaluating environmental policy.

F 17. Present U.S. laws do not allow trade in pollution permits.

T 18. Ten cent deposits on aluminum soda cans are an example of an incentive to
recycle.

T 19. Performance standards promote research into low-cost pollution control

technologies.

T 20. Per unit taxes can be used as an incentive toward conservation.

Short-Answer Questions

1. Consider the graph of a market for corn in a small country, assuming that
production of corn results in chemical fertilizer and pesticide run-off that pollutes
near-by streams. Sp represents the private market supply curve, while Ss is the
social supply curve. Ss reflects the full social costs of production.
 a. Specifically, what costs are reflected in the social supply curve?

b. What is represented by the vertical distance between the two supply curves?
What amount is this?

c. Why is it possible that production of less than 2,000 bushels of corn results in
no spillover costs?
d. What is the equilibrium quantity of corn produced in the private market?
___________ What is the socially optimal quantity of corn? ____________
Why do we say that the private market results in an over-allocation of
resources to corn production? Why is this a problem?

e. Suppose an effluent fee of $1,000 is imposed on the corn producers for every
thousand bushels of corn produced. What will be the effect of the fee on the
market price of corn? ____________ Is it appropriate that consumers pay a
higher price for a product whose production creates pollution? ____________
Why?

2. In the first graph below, draw the shift that would occur if an electrical plant decides
it is too expensive to cool off water before dumping it into a stream, and goes ahead
to cause this water (thermal) pollution. Next draw the shift that will occur in the
downstream fishing industry if it must undergo the expense of cooling the water
before it can be used to raise fish.

Considering both of these graphs:

 a. What is the effect of the decision on the price of electricity? ____________

b. What is the effect on the price of fish? ____________

c. In which industry is there now an over-allocation of resources?

____________

d. In which industry is there now an under-allocation of resources?

____________

3. Consider the following graphs of demand and supply in a polluting chemical industry,
under two different scenarios. In the first case, an effluent fee of $1.00 per pound of
chemicals is placed on the industry, and in the second case, an even larger effluent fee
of $2.00 per pound is placed on the industry.

a. Why does the supply curve shift up (back) in each case with the imposition of
the effluent fee?

b. What is the value of the vertical distance between the two supply curves in the
first graph ____________, and in the second graph ____________?

c. What is the effect of the fee on the price of chemicals ____________ and on
the quantity of chemicals ____________?

d. In which graph is the quantity of chemicals (and therefore the amount of

pollution) reduced the most? ________________________

4. Why is it important to analyze costs as well as benefits of pollution control? What

are some of these costs?