Assignment:
Study Guide
1. How is the value of a statistical life estimated in economics?
2. What is Kyoto Protocol? What was the goal of the protocol? (be specific about the targets) Why did it fail?
3. What are some of the injustices experienced by the minorities and low-income people during natural disasters, including during disaster relief, recovery and reconstruction period?
4. Explain what standard is used for regulation (efficiency/ safety/sustainability) in the following legislations:
a) Clean Air Act
b) Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA)
c) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA),
d) The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
e) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
f) Endangered Species Act (ESA)
5. What are the two main theoretical advantages of incentive-based regulation over command and control regulation?
6. Frank Ackerman mentions four basic ideas of climate economics, summarizing why we should take immediate substantial action. What are those ideas? Explain.
7. What are the two main obstacles that stand in the way of effective government action to control pollution?
1) imperfect information
2) political influence
8. Pollution taxes and tradable permit systems are two types of incentive based regulation. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each?
9. How does Superfund (CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act) work? What are the current problems in the finance of the fund?