Please answer questions from the perspective of an environmental economist. Please be detailed and use economic terms.
1. What is an efficient outcome? How does the assignment of property rights affect the efficiency of outcomes?
2. "Competitive markets tend toward efficient outcomes." Explain what this means.
3. Assume the market for oil is currently in equilibrium. Why would oil prices rise? What does the rising price reveal about oil??
4. What is 'dead weight loss'? What causes dead weight loss?
5. Assume a variety of firms producing different outputs are emitting different amounts of a similar pollution into the local environment. Briefly describe the equimarginal principle, and explain how should the equimarginal principle be employed if we want to reduce pollution by some amount, say 50%?
6. Emissions are costly to experience (we are harmed when exposed to them) but also costly to reduce. (We summarized these costs in the form of Marginal Damage functions and Marginal Abatement Cost functions.)
Should we allow all emissions? Should be abate all emissions? How can we minimize the costs of pollution? Explain, using the concepts of MD and MAC functions, and the equimarginal principle.