Kwara State University
Musa Biala
Designation: Lecturer
Department: Economics and Development Studies
| My Publications | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S/N | Title | Abstract | Authors | Volume Numbers | Publication Type | Publication Date | Link | |
| 1 | A Review of the Economist’s Approach to Pollution and Its Control |
Pollution, being a social and environmental problem, has been a subject of inquiry by environmental economists. Environmental economists see pollution as an externality problem or a market failure, and have therefore investigated factors affecting pollution and its control. Consequently, they advocate the use economic instruments to control pollution. However, despite the widely acclaimed potency or effectiveness of economic instruments in the literature, their real-world application has not caught on, the situation which could be caused by the shortcomings associated with the application of economic instruments. This paper, therefore, critically reviews economic approach to pollution and its solutions, with a view to providing ways the associated shortcomings or problems could be overcome. The paper also conceptualizes and classifies pollution as well as externalities into different taxonomies. Examining the taxonomies will prove useful in designing policy measures to combat various types of pollution, for each type requires a unique policy measure. Failure to recognize the distinctions among the different types of pollution may lead to counterproductive policies. One of the factors found to be responsible for the weak application of the instruments in the real world is implementation costs. An option recommended for policymakers is to minimize those costs associated with implementing economic instruments by designing pollutant-specific policies, while other tractable problems should be tackled as recommended in this paper. | Musa Ilias Biala | 2 | Journal Article | 2019-12-12 | ||