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Regulating Nonpoint Source Pollution Under Heterogeneous Conditions
Author(s) -
Helfand Gloria E.,
House Brett W.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1243825
Subject(s) - nonpoint source pollution , pollution , surface runoff , environmental science , baseline (sea) , production (economics) , effluent , business , environmental economics , water resource management , natural resource economics , environmental planning , environmental engineering , economics , microeconomics , ecology , oceanography , biology , geology
Because of difficulties in measuring effluent from nonpoint pollution, proposals for regulating agricultural runoff often suggest instruments applied to inputs or management practices. When pollution functions vary across sources, uniform input instruments cannot achieve a least‐cost pollution reduction, but efficient instruments may be difficult to administer. In this paper we analyze lettuce production on two soils in California's Salinas Valley to consider empirical costs associated with uniform input taxes and regulations. The results suggest that uniform instruments may not be costly relative to an efficient baseline. Though taxes are more efficient, farmers have higher profits with regulations.