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The Benefits and Costs of Informal Sector Pollution Control: Mexican Brick Kilns

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  • Blackman, Allen
  • Newbold, Stephen C.
  • Shih, Jhih-Shyang
  • Cook, Joseph H.

Abstract

In developing countries, urban clusters of manufacturers which are "informal"-small-scale, unlicensed and virtually unregulated-can have severe environmental impacts. Yet pollution control efforts have traditionally focused on large industrial sources, in part because the problem is not well understood. This paper presents a benefit-cost analysis of four practical strategies for reducing emissions from traditional brick kilns in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. To our knowledge, it is the first such analysis of informal sources. We find very significant net benefits for three of the four control strategies. These results suggest that informal polluters should be a high priority for environmental regulators.

Suggested Citation

  • Blackman, Allen & Newbold, Stephen C. & Shih, Jhih-Shyang & Cook, Joseph H., 2000. "The Benefits and Costs of Informal Sector Pollution Control: Mexican Brick Kilns," Discussion Papers 10532, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:rffdps:10532
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.10532
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    1. Blackman, Allen & Bannister, Geoffrey, 1998. "Pollution Control in the Informal Sector: The Ciudad Juárez Brickmakers' Project," RFF Working Paper Series dp-98-15, Resources for the Future.
    2. Blackman, Allen, 2000. "Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2067-2082, December.
    3. Alberini, Anna & Cropper, Maureen & Fu, Tsu-Tan & Krupnick, Alan & Liu, Jin-Tan & Shaw, Daigee & Harrington, Winston, 1997. "Valuing Health Effects of Air Pollution in Developing Countries: The Case of Taiwan," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 107-126, October.
    4. Dasgupta, Nandini, 2000. "Environmental Enforcement and Small Industries in India: Reworking the Problem in the Poverty Context," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 945-967, May.
    5. Lauraine G. Chestnut & Bart D. Ostro & Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan, 1997. "Transferability of Air Pollution Control Health Benefits Estimates from the United States to Developing Countries: Evidence from the Bangkok Study," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(5), pages 1630-1635.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ummad Mazhar & Ceyhun Elgin, 2013. "Environmental Regulation, Pollution and the Informal Economy," SBP Research Bulletin, State Bank of Pakistan, Research Department, vol. 9, pages 62-81.
    2. Ceyhun Elgin & Oğuz Öztunalı, 2014. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for the Informal Sector of Turkey (1950-2009)," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(4), pages 471-485.
    3. Valentina A. Assenova & Olav Sorenson, 2017. "Legitimacy and the Benefits of Firm Formalization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 804-818, October.
    4. Blackman, Allen & Batz, Michael & Evans, David, 2003. "Maquiladoras, Air Pollution, and Human Health in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso," RFF Working Paper Series dp-03-18, Resources for the Future.
    5. Allen Blackman & Arne Kildegaard, 2010. "Clean technological change in developing-country industrial clusters: Mexican leather tanning," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 12(3), pages 115-132, September.
    6. Gökçer Özgür & Ceyhun Elgin & Adem Y. Elveren, 2021. "Is informality a barrier to sustainable development?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 45-65, January.
    7. Elgin, Ceyhun & Oztunali, Oguz, 2014. "Pollution and informal economy," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 333-349.
    8. Blackman, Allen, 2000. "Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2067-2082, December.
    9. Goel, Rajeev K. & Saunoris, James W., 2020. "Spatial spillovers of pollution onto the underground sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    10. Bagdja Muljarijadi & Rahmat Thio, 2008. "Economic Valuation of Urban Informal Activities: Case Study of Flea Markets in Bandung Municipality," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 200802, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised May 2008.
    11. Sudeshna Chattopadhyay & Sarmila Banerjee & Katrin Millock, 2010. "Pollution Control Instruments in the Presence of an Informal Sector," Post-Print halshs-00560558, HAL.
    12. Ceyhun Elgin & Oğuz Öztunalı, 2014. "Environmental Kuznets Curve for the Informal Sector of Turkey (1950-2009)," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 61(4), pages 471-485, September.
    13. Bento, Antonio M. & Jacobsen, Mark R. & Liu, Antung A., 2018. "Environmental policy in the presence of an informal sector," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 61-77.
    14. Zhimin Zhou, 2019. "The Underground Economy and Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Emissions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-20, May.

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