全球智库信息集成服务系统

The chapter also examines in detail the means of environmental policy, that is, the choiceof specific policy instruments, beginning with an examination of potential criteria for assessingalternative instruments, with particular focus on cost-effectiveness. The theoretical foundations andexperiential highlights of individual instruments are reviewed, including conventional, commandand-control mechanisms, economic incentive or market-based instruments, and liability rules. Inthe economic-incentive category, we consider pollution charges, tradeable permit systems, marketfriction reductions, and government subsidy reductions. Three cross-cutting issues receive attention:implications of uncertainty for instrument choice; effects of instrument choice on technologicalchange; and distributional considerations. We identify a set of normative lessons in regard to design,implementation, and the identification of new applications, and we examine positive issues,including three phenomena: the historical dominance of command-and-control; the prevalence innew proposals of tradeable permits allocated without charge; and the relatively recent increase inattention given to market-based instruments.

Finally, the chapter turns to the question of how environmental responsibility is and shouldbe allocated among the various levels of government. We provide a positive review of theresponsibilities of Federal, state, and local levels of government in the environmental realm, plusa normative assessment of this allocation of regulatory responsibility. We focus on three argumentsthat have been made for Federal environmental regulation: competition among political jurisdictionsand the race to the bottom; transboundary environmental problems; and public choice and systematicbias.