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Optimal Environmental Policy for a Mine Under Polluting Waste Rocks and Stock Pollution

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  • Pauli Lappi

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Markku Ollikainen

    (University of Helsinki)

Abstract

This study analyzes socially optimal environmental policy for a mine with a model that takes into account waste or waste rock production and abatement possibilities of the mine. We develop a model, in which the mine produces an externality related to the waste rocks, such as acid mine drainage. We find that the extraction rate tends to be lower in a mine with higher waste rock production, and that the optimal tax on the waste rock production is strictly increasing in time. We extend the model to incorporate an additional externality in the form of a stock pollutant. We analyze the optimal taxes and show that the typical result that the time path of the tax on the stock pollutant is inverted U-shaped may be lost in a mine model with abatement possibility and fixed operation period.

Suggested Citation

  • Pauli Lappi & Markku Ollikainen, 2019. "Optimal Environmental Policy for a Mine Under Polluting Waste Rocks and Stock Pollution," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 133-158, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:73:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10640-018-0253-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-018-0253-9
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Emission taxation; Exhaustible resources; Mining; Optimal control; Stock pollution; Waste rock;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q30 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
    • Q38 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy (includes OPEC Policy)
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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