Title: Toxic Pollution: Tragedy of the Commons, or a Surprisingly Common Tragedy
1Toxic Pollution Tragedy of the Commons, or a
Surprisingly Common Tragedy?
- Berry, Freudenburg and Howell, 2006
2Economy vs. Environment?
COMPATIBILITY The Wealth of Nations (Smith) Ecolo
gical Modernization (Mol, Spaargaaren) Environment
al Kuznets Curve (Grossman and Krueger
)
ENDURING CONFLICT An Essay on the Principle of
Popn (Malthus) The Treadmill of Production
(Schnaiberg) The Tragedy of the
Commons (Hardin)
To what extent, and under what conditions, does
economic activity harm the environment?
Are all polluters equally responsible for
environmental harm?
3 Testing the Competing Hypotheses H1
Proportionality (polluters equally
responsible) H2 Disproportionality (bad
actors) Is pollution uniform across groups of
producers? Is pollution uniform within groups of
producers? Are there just a few bad
actors? ...if so, are they necessary?
4Case Study Toxic Releases
Level 1 Across major industry types Level 2
Within major industry Level 3 Facilities
within specific industry
Between 2-digit SICs
Select largest polluter
Within 2-digit SIC
Select largest polluter
Within 3-digit SIC
Data Sources Toxic Release Inventory, 2000
RSEI Version 2.1
5Expected Distributions
Probability Density
Cumulative Fraction of Polluters
Toxic Releases per unit Production
Toxic Releases per unit Production
Normal Distribution Cumulative Fraction Plot
H1 Proportionality, allowing for many small
differences between firms
6Expected Distributions
Probability Density
Cumulative Fraction of Polluters
Toxic Releases per unit Production
Toxic Releases per unit Production
Lognormal Distribution Cumulative Fraction Plot
H2 Disproportionality
7Test Statistic Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S test,
with Lilliefors Correction)
D
8Across Industries
How important is the tail of the distribution?
9Across Industries
K-S Test Result Normal? (0.000) Log-normal
(0.200)
10Across Sectors within the Primary Metals Industry
K-S Test Result Normal? (0.002) Log-normal
(0.200)
11Across Facilities within the Highest Polluting
Sector (Primary Smelting Refining of
Nonferrous Metals)
K-S Test Result Normal? (0.000) Log-normal
(0.031)
12Is the Pollution Necessary for the Economy?
K-S Test Result Normal? (0.000) Log-normal
(0.028)
13Is the Pollution Necessary for Jobs?
K-S Test Result Normal? (0.000) Log-normal
(0.058)
14Is the Pollution Necessary for Jobs?
K-S Test Result Normal? (0.000) Log-normal
(0.083)
15Tragedy of the Commons?
16How much does each cow affect the pasture?
Cows
Pasture
17How much does each cow affect the pasture?
10
Cows
Pasture
10
18How much does each polluter affect the overall
level of pollution?
Polluters
Toxic Pollution
19How much does each polluter affect the overall
level of pollution?
10
Polluters
Toxic Pollution
10
Plants within Smelting and Refining Industry
20How much does each polluter affect the overall
level of pollution?
10
Polluters
Toxic Pollution
Plants within Smelting and Refining Industry
21How much does each polluter affect the overall
level of pollution?
10
Polluters
97.8
Toxic Pollution
Plants within Smelting and Refining Industry
22How much does each polluter affect the overall
level of pollution?
Polluters
Top 10 to median
Toxic Pollution
Plants within Smelting and Refining Industry
23How much does each polluter affect the overall
level of pollution?
Polluters
Top 10 to median
97.4
Toxic Pollution
Plants within Smelting and Refining Industry
24How much does each polluter affect the overall
level of pollution?
Top 10 to median
Polluters
65
Toxic Pollution
Plants within Smelting and Refining Industry
Omitting top polluter (Rowley, UT)
25Conclusions
- The proportionality hypothesis is consistently
rejected. - The tail of the distribution of pollution
production accounts for an - extremely disproportionate amount of the total
pollution at all levels - of analysis.
- This disproportionality does not appear to be
necessary.
- Regulation that targets bad actors can
substantially lower - environmental harm with minimal impact to the
economy.
- More empirical research is needed to substantiate
and provide - explanations for the above phenomenon.