Exam 16: Externalities, Externaliteis, the Environment, and Natural Resources

Voluntarism often has proved to be weak and unreliable. Does it still have a place in controlling activities that damage the environment?

Emissions permits might be called an allowance.

Direct controls are considered inefficient because all firms are forced to pay the same costs.

Global climate change will not

Which is not an example of pollution?

The supply curve of a depletable natural resource is usually

Who of the following has been prominently accused of acting on the basis of the "edifice complex"?

A tax on polluting emissions will

Direct controls are generally much more costly than emissions taxes because

Suppose that because of climatic conditions, the smog levels in Los Angeles suddenly soar to dangerous levels. The most successful policy in this case would be

If one tracks the prices of critical metals, like lead, zing, and copper, one sees that

Among the factors that might lead to a divergence from the path of prices for a depletable resource predicted by the economic models are: (i)unexpected discoveries of new reserves; (ii)new technologies that reduce extraction costs.

Pollution taxes are more efficient in cleaning up the environment than direct controls. What is not an advantage of direct controls?

Economists generally consider the use of taxes as the most efficient way of solving pollution problems.

The tax approach may be favorable over a direct controls approach to pollution cleanup because

Economists believe it is feasible and desirable to reduce environmental damage to zero.

Concerns about environmental damages arise from

Externalities pose a market pricing system failure.

The production of smoke as a pollutant is a failure of the market system.

What is new about environmental problems today is