Conservation and economic efficiency: an approach to materials policy
Talbot Page addresses the range of issues that need to be considered in establishing a materials policy. First, he examines a materials policy based on a criterion of economic efficiency, investigating factors affecting competition between the uses of virgin (primary) materials and recycled (secondary) materials and attempting to assess the impact on their relative use levels of three commonly cited market failures: (1) differing taxes and tax allowances, (2) differential freight rates, and (3) the failure to include waste disposal costs in the price of goods and services. Second, Page examines the intertemporal (long-term) distributional implications of a materials policy based on the criterion of economic efficiency and judges this criterion to be insufficient to guarantee fairness to future generations. A second or conservation criterion is developed to introduce equity and fairness into the economics of natural resources. Finally, Page attempts to reconcile these two diverse positions by combining the best properties of each. In doing so, he points out that there is no automatic mechanism in the market to balance the tendencies of technological substitution, resource depletion, and waste generation from an intertemporal point of view; that resource depletion and the future long-term quality of the natural environment are not market failure problems, but distributional problems, and that they should be dealt with using macroeconomic policy instruments. Page advocates using the market and microeconomic policy instruments to enhance and maintain an efficient utilization of natural resources, and macroeconomic policy and government intervention to ensure an equitable distribution of the resource base into the distant future. Equity and efficiency are the two basic strands of economic thought pursued by Page. Brought together, they form a basis for discussion and development of a materials policy.
- OSTI ID:
- 7300152
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
290400* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Energy Resources
291000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Conservation
CONSUMPTION RATES
COST
ECONOMICS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY CONSERVATION
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
RECYCLING
RESOURCE CONSERVATION
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT