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Socially Efficient Control Of Carcinogen Emissions From Open Top Vapor Cleaners In Lndiana, Robert S. Main
Socially Efficient Control Of Carcinogen Emissions From Open Top Vapor Cleaners In Lndiana, Robert S. Main
Robert S. Main
Robert Main's contribution to the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Proceedings, 1995.
Comment On 'Impacts, Costs, And Techniques For Mitigation Of Contaminated Groundwater: A Review' By M. Sharefkin, M. Shechter, And A.V. Kneese, Robert Main
Robert S. Main
Published response to 'Impacts, Costs, and Techniques for Mitigation of Contaminated Groundwater: A Review' by M. Sharefkin, M. Shechter, and A.V. Kneese, Water Resources Research, Volume 20, Issue 12.
A New Approach To Peak Load Pricing, Robert Main
A New Approach To Peak Load Pricing, Robert Main
Robert S. Main
This paper explores an alternative method of ‘solving’ the problem of recurring time variable demands in a public utility context. It views the utility's load curve as a series of horizontal layers or ‘slices’ of varying lengths, rather than as a series of vertical slices as in the traditional approach. Several cases are examined, and traditional time-of-day pricing is shown to be inefficient or inapplicable in some of them, while ‘demand-layer’ pricing, based on horizontal slicing, is efficient. In still other cases, neither method of pricing is efficient.
A Rationale For Meeting Quotas Asymmetrically, J. Patrick Meister, Robert S. Main
A Rationale For Meeting Quotas Asymmetrically, J. Patrick Meister, Robert S. Main
Robert S. Main
Under certain conditions, otherwise identical, competing firms may find it jointly preferable to face differing degrees of trade barriers on individual products rather than symmetric trade barriers. The key is the ability to reduce marginal production cost via research and development. The economic significance of this insight is that there could be a role for a market for quota allotments. This insight also has applications to Voluntary Export Restraints in which a priori symmetric, restricted firms may prefer to have individual production levels allocated asymmetrically. This indicates the need for detailed studies of how quotas are met by individual firms. …
Polluters’ Profits And Political Response: Direct Control Versus Taxes: Comment, Robert S. Main, Charles W. Baird
Polluters’ Profits And Political Response: Direct Control Versus Taxes: Comment, Robert S. Main, Charles W. Baird
Robert S. Main
In a recent issue of this Review, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock (B-T) presented a public choice analysis of the relative merits of direct controls and taxes in externality control. In Section IV of their paper, B-T consider the case of reciprocal external diseconomies of consumption. They ask whether "... persons in this sort of interaction, acting through the political processes of the community, will impose on themselves either a penalty tax or direct regulation" (p. 143). Their analysis is carried out within the context of a two-person model in which each person consumes the same quantity of a good …
Subsidizing Non-Polluting Goods Vs. Taxing Polluting Goods For Pollution Reduction, Robert S. Main
Subsidizing Non-Polluting Goods Vs. Taxing Polluting Goods For Pollution Reduction, Robert S. Main
Robert S. Main
Pigovian taxes on polluters are politically unpopular, but subsidies for non-polluting sources are politically attractive. This paper presents a linear demand and supply model and numerical example to explore the trade-offs between taxing polluting sources of a good versus subsidizing non-polluting sources of the same good. While the model (along with the associated numerical example) shows the optimality of Pigovian taxes, it also shows how much welfare is reduced if subsidies for nonpolluters are employed instead. Further, it shows the optimal tax, given any level of subsidy and the optimal subsidy, given any level of tax.
How Do Environmental And Natural Resource Economics Texts Deal With The Simple Model Of The Intertemporal Allocation Of A Nonrenewable Resource, Robert Main
Robert S. Main
Textbooks in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics invariably deal with the problem of allocating a non-renewable resource over time. The simplest version of that problem is the case of a resource that is to be allocated over two periods. The resource has a constant Marginal Extraction Cost (MEC). Most textbooks treat this case before moving on to more complex and realistic cases. This paper suggests the results that should be emphasized and the method that should be used to arrive at those results. It also points out the possible confusions that should be avoided. Finally, it examines how several well-known …
Evolution Of The Barrett Law, Robert Main