Identify the following situations as an example of a negative or a positive externality:

a. You are a birder (bird watcher), and your neighbor has put up several birdhouses in the yard as well as planting trees and flowers that attract birds.

b. Your neighbor paints his house a hideous color.

c. Investments in private education raise your country’s standard of living.

d. Trash dumped upstream flows downstream right past your home.

e. Your roommate is a smoker, but you are a nonsmoker.

Short Answer

Expert verified

(a) Positive externality

(b) Negative externality

(c) Positive externality

(d) Negative externality

(e) Negative externality

Step by step solution

01

Concept : 

Negative externality :

A third-party cost is an expense suffered by a party as a result of a financial activity.

As a result, the first and second parties in those transactions are the producer and consumer, respectively, while the third party are any corporation, individual, or property owner that is indirectly affected.

Positive externality :

A third party receives a gain as a result of an economic transaction is considered as a positive externality.

A third party is any company, individual, or property owner who is harmed in some way.

02

(a) Explanation : 

A birdwatcher is considered a third party. As a result, a birdwatcher's enjoyment of the lovely sound of birds is considered a positive externality.

03

(b) Explanation : 

The negative externality of a neighbor's house painted in a dreadful color is that the ugly hue is perceived as an unsightly and shocking color.

Such a color will annoy the observer and will not provide a smoothing effect.

04

(c) Explanation : 

Private education investment will raise the country's level of living, which will be considered a positive externality because it will benefit third parties.

05

(d) Explanation :

The rubbish thrown upstream and flowing downstream directly near to the house will undoubtedly have an impact, with a bad outcome.

As a result, the outcome in this case will be negative externality.

06

(e) Explanation :

If your roommate smokes and you don't, there will undoubtedly be a negative externality. As a nonsmoker, he will become a passive smoker, indicating he will not smoke directly but will be affected by the smoke indirectly.

As a result, the outcome in this case will be negative externality.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

The rows in Table 12.7 show three market-oriented tools for reducing pollution. The columns of the table show three complaints about command-and-control regulation. Fill in the table by stating briefly how each market-oriented tool addresses each of the three concerns.


Incentives to

Go Beyond


Flexibility about Where and How

Pollution Will Be Reduced


Political Process Creates

Loopholes and Exceptions


Pollution

Charges





Marketable

Permits





Property

Rights





What is an externality?

What are the three problems that economists have noted with regard to command-and-control regulation?

Can extreme levels of pollution hurt the economic

development of a high-income country? Why or why

not?

Suppose a city releases 16million gallons of raw sewage into a nearby lake. Table 12.8shows the total costs of cleaning up the sewage to different levels, together with the total benefits of doing so. (Benefits include environmental, recreational, health, and industrial benefits.)


Total Cost (in thousands of

dollars)


Total Benefits (in thousands of


dollars)


16 million

gallons


Current situation
Current situation

12 million

gallons


50800
8 million gallons
1501300
4 million gallons
5001650
0 gallons
12001900

a. Using the information in Table 12.8, calculate the marginal costs and marginal benefits of reducing sewage emissions for this city. See Production, Costs, and Industry Structure if you need a refresher on how to calculate marginal costs.

b. What is the optimal level of sewage for this city?

c. Why not just pass a law that firms can emit zero sewage? After all, the total benefits of zero-emissions exceed the total costs.

See all solutions

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