Non-separability and substitutability among water pollutants: evidence from India.

The design and implementation of environmental policy often involve more than one pollutant, and must consider pollution as a byproduct of the production of marketable output. In this paper, we test the implicit assumption in the empirical literature that (1) production of marketable output, polluti...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Environment & Development Economics Vol. 16; no. 6; pp. 709 - 734
Autores principales: Kumar, Surender, Managi, Shunsuke
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Cambridge University Press December 2011
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The design and implementation of environmental policy often involve more than one pollutant, and must consider pollution as a byproduct of the production of marketable output. In this paper, we test the implicit assumption in the empirical literature that (1) production of marketable output, pollution and abatement are separable, and (2) different pollutants can be abated separately. Using unique plant-level data in India, we reject the null hypotheses of separability between marketable output and pollutants, and between different pollutants. Firms must incur abatement costs for reducing pollution levels. In addition, complement and substitute relationships between water pollutants are demonstrated with statistical significance. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.