Deck 23: Economics, Environment, and Sustainability

Question 1

Which of the following is an economic decision-making tool that involves determining who/what may be affected, projecting outcomes, and establishing who benefits or is harmed?

A)existence value
B)monetary value
C)discount value
D)nonuse value
E)cost benefit analysis

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Figure 23-3 is a graph in which demand and supply intersect. The point of intersection is called ...

A)quantity
B)price
C)availability
D)market price equilibrium
E)full cost pricing

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Of the nearly 8 million impoverished people who have received microloans from the Grameen Bank, what percentage are women?

A)100%
B)97%
C)75%
D)64%
E)33%

Answer 3

B

Question 4

A free-market system operating without government interference requires that sellers

A)not coerce or mislead sellers or competitors
B)provide all the goods and services possible
C)not include all their indirect costs in the prices
D)increase profits by pushing others out of business
E)use all resources to their fullest

Question 5

Markets do well in the production and distribution of private goods, but are not so good at

A)accumulating resources
B)distribution of resources
C)public services
D)protecting sources of information
E)developing strategies

Question 6

According to the World Bank, what percentage of the world's people are classified as living in poverty?

A)10%
B)25%
C)33%
D)50%
E)75%

Question 7

The point at which the supplier's price matches what buyers are willing to pay for some quantity of a good or service is called

A)demand curve
B)market price equilibrium point
C)supply curve
D)price line
E)market cost

Question 8

Which of the following includes services and resources produced by the earth's natural processes?

A)human capital
B)natural capital
C)artificial capital
D)manufactured capital
E)development capital

Question 9

All of the following are direct costs of an automobile, except

A)maintenance and repair
B)gasoline
C)pollution and health
D)raw materials and labor
E)oil

Question 10

A team of ecologists and economists estimated the yearly ecological services provided by the earth's forests amount to

A)$259 billion
B)$551 billion
C)$856 billion
D)$1.3 trillion
E)$4.7 trillion

Question 11

All of the following are economic goods, except

A)a swing set
B)computer repair service
C)food
D)a walk in the woods
E)clothes

Question 12

Economists use ____ to estimate a resource's future economic value compared to its present value.

A)internalized cost
B)discount rate
C)instrumental value
D)trend analysis
E)cost-benefit analysis

Question 13

Which of the following is a nonuse value?

A)existence value
B)monetary cost
C)mitigation cost
D)willingness-to-pay value
E)utilitarian value

Question 14

Governments intervene in markets to do all of the following, except

A)prevent degradation of open-access resources
B)protect people from fraud
C)protect health and safety of workers and consumers
D)manage public resources
E)direct production of goods and services

Question 15

The optimum level of pollution control is reached when

A)marginal costs of pollution control begins to exceed the marginal cost of pollution
B)marginal costs of pollution begins to exceed the marginal costs of pollution control
C)the marginal cost of pollution control intersects with the marginal cost of pollution
D)demand for pollution clean-up exceeds the capacity to clean pollution
E)technologies become affordable to clean up pollution

Question 16

A car buyer and others in society, pay hidden costs of car ownership in the form of all of the following, except

A)poorer health
B)higher costs of insurance and health care
C)higher taxes for pollution control
D)housing construction
E)land used for highways and parking

Question 17

Figure 23-5 shows that economic systems take natural capital and produce the following outputs, all of which are negative, except

A)Depletion of nonrenewable resources
B)Heat
C)Pollution and waste
D)Degradation of renewable resources
E)Goods and services

Question 18

Which of the following is a strategy recommended by environmental economists to help make the transition away from unsustainable economic growth?

A)Substitute ethanol or natural gas for oil
B)Fine tune existing economic systems and tools
C)Continue economic growth for the jobs
D)Provide businesses with profits even though unsustainable
E)Because economic growth is unlimited continue use of natural resources

Question 19

All of the following are ideas of ecological economists, except

A)There are no substitutes for many vital natural resources
B)Human economic systems depend heavily on irreplaceable natural resources
C)Continuing economic growth is necessary for providing businesses with profits
D)We should discourage unsustainable forms of economic growth
E)Market prices should include costs of harmful effects of producing goods

Question 20

Which of the following is not an external cost of driving a domestic car?

A)non-renewable resource use
B)cost of manufacture
C)release of greenhouse gases
D)disturbing land
E)air and water pollution

Question 21

In order to reduce poverty, governments, businesses, international lending agencies, and wealthy individuals could do all of the following, except

A)Encourage lending agencies to make large loans to poor people.
B)Help stabilize population growth in developing countries.
C)Eradicate illiteracy.
D)Mount a massive global effort to combat malnutrition and infectious diseases.
E)Reduce the ecological footprints of developed countries.

Question 22

Which of the following is an example of a service-flow economy?

A)purchasing an automobile and paying internal costs for environmental impacts
B)including life-cycle costs in the price of a product
C)providing document services instead of selling photocopiers
D)selling carpet made from 100% recycled fibers
E)using ecotourism to promote and sustain local indigenous communities

Question 23

The trickle-down effect describes how

A)Waterfalls flow during the fall season.
B)Toxic wastes filter down in landfills.
C)Water percolates through loam soils.
D)Economic growth increases the number of jobs and helps the poor help themselves.
E)Toxic pesticides percolate through farm lands.

Question 24

Developed countries, in the year 2000, pledged to devote 0.7% of their national income toward reducing hunger and poverty, and moving toward environmental sustainability.What is the average actual amount donated by these countries?

A)2.0%
B)1.5%
C)0.75%
D)0.50%
E)0.25%

Question 25

Innovation-friendly regulation does all of the following, except

A)create a paperwork nightmare
B)motivate companies to develop green products
C)increase company profits
D)enable companies to create new jobs
E)increase international market competitiveness

Question 26

The measurement of the annual economic value of all goods and services within a country is called the

A)GDP
B)GNP
C)HPI
D)GNH
E)NIH

Question 27

All of the following would be forms of regulation, except

A)requiring that certain resources be protected from unsustainable use
B)setting acceptable levels of harmful activities
C)banning the release of toxic chemicals into the environment
D)selling pollution rights
E)requiring that certain resources be based on sustainable use

Question 28

At what level has the United States donated to the Millennium Development Goals, established in the year 2000?

A)1.5%
B)1.0%
C)0.5%
D)0.16%
E)0.05%

Question 29

According to some economists, full-cost pricing would do all of the following, except

A)reduce resource waste and pollution
B)improve human health
C)cause job and profit loss in harmful businesses
D)create jobs and profits in beneficial businesses
E)make consumer choices more difficult

Question 30

Levying taxes on each unit of pollution discharged into the air or water is an example of

A)tradable pollution rights
B)charging user fees
C)regulation
D)green taxes
E)subsidies for beneficial actions

Question 31

Ray Anderson's company, Interface, has sought to become the world's first totally sustainable green corporation. The principles by which he works includes all of the following except

A)influence other business leaders to adopt similar goals
B)have the company put back more into nature than it takes
C)to do good, not just do no harm
D)increase the amount of food available to the poor
E)help the world toward being more sustainable

Question 32

Subsidies and tax breaks for environmentally harmful businesses cost the world's taxpayers what amount per year?

A)$2 trillion
B)$200 billion
C)$150 billion
D)$1 billion
E)$500 million

Question 33

The Grameen Bank specializes in which of the following?

A)providing loans to governments to help the poor
B)providing loans to corporations that help the poor
C)providing microfinancing
D)providing financing for ecologically related large projects
E)providing grants to not-for-profit organizations

Question 34

Since 1980, the wealth gap between the rich and the poor has

A)disappeared
B)increased
C)stayed the same
D)decreased
E)stayed the same and then decreased

Question 35

Which of the following is not true about green taxes?

A)70% of voters support green taxes when they are explained.
B)U.S.Congress has not introduced green taxes because of lobbyists.
C)Green taxes can reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
D)Green taxes can reduce economic competitiveness.
E)Green taxes can create many new jobs.

Question 36

Tradable environmental permits have all of the following advantages, except

A)flexibility
B)easy to administer
C)self-monitoring of emissions can promote cheating
D)permit prices determined by market transactions
E)encourages pollution prevention and waste reduction

Question 37

Ray Anderson is known for

A)leasing organic solvents for chemical service companies
B)leasing carpets
C)designing a car-sharing network
D)creating a company to recycle and recondition home appliances
E)establishing the world's leading document service company

Question 38

A drawback to implementing environmental taxes and fees is that it

A)penalizes low-income groups unless safety nets are provided
B)helps bring about full-cost pricing
C)encourages businesses to develop environmentally beneficial goods
D)easily administered by existing tax agencies
E)introduces environmentally beneficial technologies

Question 39

Full-cost pricing is not widely used for all of the following reasons, except

A)Producers of harmful products would have to charge more.
B)It is difficult to estimate environmental costs.
C)Producers don't like the environment.
D)Some businesses might go out of business.
E)some businesses use political and economic power to retain government assistance

Question 40

Which of the following would not be included in the GPI, the Genuine Progress Indicator?

A)volunteer work
B)gross national happiness
C)health care for family members
D)childcare
E)housework

Question 41

Neoclassical economists beliefs include all of the following except

A)always grow
B)compete, but don't annihilate
C)use things up fast in order to produce more
D)seek your profits now
E)do whatever makes sense in monetary terms

Question 42

Direct costs involving land, labor, materials, and pollution-control technologies are always difficult to estimate.

Question 43

Neoclassical, ecological, and environmental economists all believe there has to be a balance between economic growth and environmental preservation.

Question 44

The willingness of people to pay to maintain natural resources and services is called an existence value.

Question 45

A discount rate is the estimate of a resource's future economic value compared to its present value.

Question 46

Most free-market economists believe that an economic system based on private ownership of all resources and operating without government interference is the best system for solving environmental problems.

Question 47

Making the shift to more sustainable economies will require governments, schools, and industries to do all of the following except

A)greatly increase spending on research and development
B)increase spending on scientific and engineering education
C)give all students a basic environmental education
D)include neoclassical economic concepts in their curricula
E)develop business schools that include sustainable business planning

Question 48

Neoclassical economists assume that the potential for economic growth is unlimited.

Question 49

Companies lobbying for government subsidies, tax breaks, or regulations that give them an advantage create an even economic field for competition.

Question 50

In a truly free-market economic system no company or small group of companies would control the prices of any goods or services.

Question 51

The repayment rate of microloans provided by the Grameen Bank is much greater than that of conventional banks.

Question 52

Some companies withhold information from consumers about health or environmental dangers posed by their products unless the government requires they disclose it.

Question 53

Markets can fail if they do not value the beneficial effects provided by the earth's natural capital and the harmful effects of some types of economic activity.

Question 54

A cost-benefit analysis can lead to wide ranges of benefits and costs with a lot of room for error.

Question 55

The sustainability revolution is also an economic revolution.

Question 56

Societies that have more sustainable economic systems have all of the following components in terms of ecology and population, except

A)mimic nature
B)preserve biodiversity
C)repair ecological damage
D)stabilize human population
E)reduce income from natural capital

Question 57

The market price you pay for something does not include most of the costs related to harm to the environment and human health associated with the production of the product.

Question 58

The best solution for pollution is always total cleanup.

Question 59

Most advanced industrialized countries have low-throughput economies.

Question 60

After the easily removed natural resource, such as coal, has been taken, the cost of removal goes up with each additional unit of the resource taken.This is called the marginal cost.

Question 61

The repayment rate at the Grameen Bank on microloans is about 45─50%.

Question 62

_______________ economists view the earth's natural capital as a subset or part of a human economic system.

Question 63

Adding external costs to the cost of goods and services would counter the amount people now pay in poor health, high-priced insurance, and other pollution controls.

Question 64

Most people believe in the command and control approach to regulations.

Question 65

A more sustainable economy is a low-throughput economy.

Question 66

The Genuine Progress Indicator adds to the GDP the estimated values of benefits not included in market transactions and subtracts the harmful environmental and social costs.

Question 67

Green taxes would replace environmentally harmful taxes that encourage what we want less of─pollution, resource waste, and environmental degradation.

Question 68

About one-half of the world's people try to live on a daily income of less than $2 per day.

Question 69

Changing to a recycling and reuse economy will enable us to meet the needs of an ever-growing population indefinitely.

Question 70

Full-cost pricing would discourage producers from inventing more resource-efficient methods of production, thereby cutting production costs.

Question 71

Poverty is defined as having an income of less than $2.25 per day, while extreme poverty is having to live on less than $_________ per day.

Question 72

Even with the genuine progress indicator, or the gross national happiness indicator, we will know very little about what is happening to people or the environment.

Question 73

The wealth gap between the rich and poor has gotten smaller in the last 25 years.

Question 74

In a truly free-market economic system, all economic decisions are governed solely by the competitive interaction of ____________________, ____________________, and ____________________.

Question 75

In Europe and the United States, 70% of people surveyed indicated they support green taxes.

Question 76

The cap and trade system is a market-based approach to pollution in which a permit holder not using its entire allocation of acceptable levels of pollution can sell them to other companies.

Question 77

Three types of capital are used to produce goods and services, including: __________ capital; __________ capital; and __________ capital.

Question 78

Ecological economists and ____________________ view economic systems as subsystems of the biosphere.

Question 79

Experience shows markets cannot be relied upon to provide adequate levels of ____________________.

Question 80

Most environmental and ecological economists want an environmentally honest market system.