If "low-pollution" means "good milage", that could cause lower gasoline consumption
for the "good milage" people, lowering gas prices which could give incentive for
everyone to drive more, or for the other 50% to buy "even worse milage" cars.
Nils
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Caplan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: 1. februar 2001 12:48
Subject: Voluntary Pollution Control
> Suppose 50% of all people voluntarily buy low-pollution cars to "do
> their part" for clean air.
>
> Can anyone think up plausible mechanisms whereby their choice would
> induce other people to pollute *more*?
>
> The main mechanism I can think of is just crowding out of altruism. The
> more people contribute to solve a problem, the smaller the problem gets,
> and the less other altruists want to contribute.
>
> But let's keep the logic of collective action in mind here - If selfish
> people are already polluting to the point where the MB are approximately
> 0, where is the elasticity, if any?
>
> --
> Prof. Bryan Caplan
> Department of Economics George Mason University
> http://www.bcaplan.com [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "[T]he power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in
> those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous."
> -- Edward Gibbon, *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*
>
