Negative Externalities Of Production

2343 Words10 Pages
1) Explain the concept of negative externalities of production. (10 marks) 2) Evaluate three policies that may be used by government to reduce external costs of production. (15 marks) Negative externalities are adverse effects of a production of a good or service on a third party. Many examples refer to environmental problems, such as pollution, deforestation, and congestion. For instance, if a factory was to emit greenhouses gases, this would contribute to air pollution, and if they were to dispose of their wastes in the rivers, this would be water pollution. Another example of a negative externality of production is deforestation, which is when trees or other plants are being chopped down in order to use the timber for wooden products, such as furniture. When this occurs, the firm is required to pay for the cost of production plus the cost to the community. In other words, the firm has external costs, in additional to their own private costs. The marginal social costs greater than the marginal private costs because the marginal social cost (MSC) is the marginal private costs (MPC) and the external costs (MEC) combined. Its equation would be: MSC=MPC+MEC This equation acts as the production curve, while the marginal social benefits equation acts as the consumption curve. If the same theory is used for the social benefits, we would derive that the marginal social benefits (MSB) is equal to the marginal private benefits (MPB) plus the marginal external benefits (MEB). MSB=MPB+MEB In order for us to focus on simply one externality, assumptions need to be made. We assume that there are no positive externalities of production and there are no positive or negative externalities of consumption. This means that the equations above would be: MSB=MPB+MEB MSB=MPB+0 MSB=MPB MSC=MPC+MEC MSC>MPC While drawing the graph, we know that in order for there
Open Document