If society wishes to reduce overall pollution by a certain amount, it is efficient to have firms with lower costs reduce greater amounts of pollution than those with higher costs. True or False?

Question

Business

Randy Suarez

16 August, 10:26

If society wishes to reduce overall pollution by a certain amount, it is efficient to have firms with lower costs reduce greater amounts of pollution than those with higher costs. True or False?

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Answers (1)

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Sofia Bonilla · Answer 1

True

Explanation:

Some industries can reduce their pollution levels a lot at a small cost but others cannot, the cost of reducing their pollution levels is almost prohibitive. One way to solve this problem is not forcing all the industries to reduce their pollution levels equally, but rather promoting the reduction of pollution through tax incentives and trading pollution rights. This way, the industries that can reduce pollution at a low cost will be willing to sell their pollution rights to industries that aren't able to do it and maybe even make a profit out of it.

For example, industry A can reduce 10 units of pollution by spending $1,000 while industry B can reduce 10 units of pollution by spending $10,000. Industry A will be willing to sell its pollution rights to industry B for more than $1,000 per 10 units and industry B will be willing to buy pollution rights for less than $10,000 per 10 units.