IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rff/dpaper/dp-03-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Water Pollution Taxes: A Good Idea Doomed to Failure?

Author

Listed:
  • Boyd, James

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

Water pollution taxes, or effluent fees, have long been advocated by environmental economists as a regulatory approach to cost effectively achieve water quality improvements. The article reviews the arguments in favor of taxes and traces the history of the idea in U.S. policy debates. Particular attention is given to the institutional challenges presented by a tax system and its application in watershed contexts where transport phenomena are important. The article also addresses the question of why effluent taxes are so rarely seen in practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Boyd, James, 2003. "Water Pollution Taxes: A Good Idea Doomed to Failure?," RFF Working Paper Series dp-03-20, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-03-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/RFF-DP-03-20.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Segerson, Kathleen, 1988. "Uncertainty and incentives for nonpoint pollution control," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 87-98, March.
    2. Ronald C. Griffin & Daniel W. Bromley, 1982. "Agricultural Runoff as a Nonpoint Externality: A Theoretical Development," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(3), pages 547-552.
    3. JunJie Wu & Bruce Babcock, 2001. "Spatial Heterogeneity and the Choice of Instruments to Control Nonpoint Pollution," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 18(2), pages 173-192, February.
    4. Hans Th. A. Bressers, 1988. "A Comparison Of The Effectiveness Of Incentives And Directives: The Case Of Dutch Water Quality Policy," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 7(3), pages 500-518, March.
    5. repec:bla:jecsur:v:15:y:2001:i:3:p:255-89 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Bohm, Peter & Russell, Clifford S., 1985. "Comparative analysis of alternative policy instruments," Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, in: A. V. Kneese† & J. L. Sweeney (ed.), Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 395-460, Elsevier.
    7. James S. Shortle & Richard D. Horan, 2001. "The Economics of Nonpoint Pollution Control," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 255-289, July.
    8. Martin L. Weitzman, 1974. "Prices vs. Quantities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(4), pages 477-491.
    9. William J. Baumol & Wallace E. Oates, 1971. "The Use of Standards and Prices for Protection of the Environment," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Peter Bohm & Allen V. Kneese (ed.), The Economics of Environment, pages 53-65, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Thomas Alban, 1995. "Regulating Pollution under Asymmetric Information: The Case of Industrial Wastewater Treatment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 357-373, May.
    11. Susan Rose-Ackerman, 1973. "Effluent Charges: A Critique," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 6(4), pages 512-528, November.
    12. Revesz, Richard L. & Stavins, Robert N., 2007. "Environmental Law," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 499-589, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lan , Le & Iftekhar, MD Sayed & Fogarty, James & Schilizzi, Steven, 2020. "Cost of uniform “cut”: Management of declining groundwater in the presence of environmental damages," Working Papers 307434, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    2. Lori Bennear & Robert Stavins, 2007. "Second-best theory and the use of multiple policy instruments," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 37(1), pages 111-129, May.
    3. Ian W.H. Parry & Mr. John Norregaard & Mr. Dirk Heine, 2012. "Environmental Tax Reform: Principles from Theory and Practice to Date," IMF Working Papers 2012/180, International Monetary Fund.
    4. James Shortle & Richard D. Horan, 2017. "Nutrient Pollution: A Wicked Challenge for Economic Instruments," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 1-39, April.
    5. Ni, Debing & Wang, Yuntong, 2007. "Sharing a polluted river," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 176-186, July.
    6. Weixin Yang & Lingguang Li, 2017. "Efficiency Evaluation and Policy Analysis of Industrial Wastewater Control in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-18, August.
    7. Sheila M. Olmstead, 2010. "The Economics of Water Quality," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(1), pages 44-62, Winter.
    8. James Shortle, 2017. "Policy Nook: “Economic Incentives for Water Quality Protection”," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 1-11, April.
    9. James Shortle & Richard D. Horan, 2013. "Policy Instruments for Water Quality Protection," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 111-138, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cropper, Maureen L & Oates, Wallace E, 1992. "Environmental Economics: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 675-740, June.
    2. Encarna Esteban & José Albiac, 2016. "Salinity Pollution Control in the Presence of Farm Heterogeneity — An Empirical Analysis," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(02), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Wu, JunJie & Babcock, Bruce A., 1999. "The Relative Efficiency of Voluntary vs Mandatory Environmental Regulations," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 158-175, September.
    4. Louis Kaplow & Steven Shavell, 2002. "On the Superiority of Corrective Taxes to Quantity Regulation," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, January.
    5. James Shortle & Richard D. Horan, 2017. "Nutrient Pollution: A Wicked Challenge for Economic Instruments," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 1-39, April.
    6. Pascale Phelinas & Sonia Schwartz, 2017. "Regulating transgenic soybean production in Argentina," Working Papers halshs-01656924, HAL.
    7. Lawrence H. Goulder & Ian W. H. Parry, 2008. "Instrument Choice in Environmental Policy," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 152-174, Summer.
    8. Werner Hediger, 2003. "Alternative policy measures and farmers' participation to improve rural landscapes and water quality: A conceptual framework," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 139(III), pages 333-350, September.
    9. Newell, Richard G & Stavins, Robert N, 2003. "Cost Heterogeneity and the Potential Savings from Market-Based Policies," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 43-59, January.
    10. Catherine L. Kling, 2011. "Economic Incentives to Improve Water Quality in Agricultural Landscapes: Some New Variations on Old Ideas," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(2), pages 297-309.
    11. Ana Espínola-Arredondo & Félix Muñoz-García, 2015. "Can Poorly Informed Regulators Hinder Competition?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(3), pages 433-461, July.
    12. James Shortle & Richard D. Horan, 2013. "Policy Instruments for Water Quality Protection," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 111-138, June.
    13. Mikołaj Czajkowski & Hans E. Andersen & Gite Blicher-Mathiasen & Wiktor Budziński & Katarina Elofsson & Jan Hagemejer & Berit Hasler & Christoph Humborg & James C. R. Smart & Erik Smedberg & Per Ståln, 2020. "Increasing the cost-effectiveness of water quality improvements through pollution abatement target-setting at different spatial scales," Working Papers 2020-02, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    14. James Shortle, 2017. "Policy Nook: “Economic Incentives for Water Quality Protection”," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 1-11, April.
    15. Helfand, Gloria E. & Berck, Peter & Maull, Tim, 2003. "The theory of pollution policy," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 249-303, Elsevier.
    16. Mourad Ali & Patrick Rio, 2009. "Deterrence vs. Efficiency To Regulate Nonpoint Source Pollution," Working Papers 09-22, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Dec 2009.
    17. Joseph E. Aldy & Alan J. Krupnick & Richard G. Newell & Ian W. H. Parry & William A. Pizer, 2010. "Designing Climate Mitigation Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 903-934, December.
    18. Tisdell, John, 2007. "Bringing biophysical models into the economic laboratory: An experimental analysis of sediment trading in Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 584-595, January.
    19. Jeffrey D. Connor & Darla Hatton MacDonald & Mark Morrison & Andrea Cast, 2009. "Evaluating policy options for managing diffuse source water quality in Lake Taupo, New Zealand," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 348-359, December.
    20. Lichtenberg, Erik, 2002. "Agriculture and the environment," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 23, pages 1249-1313, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    water quality; effluent fees; market-based incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-03-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Resources for the Future (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rffffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.