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Market Failure

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Introduction

A key cause of climate change is the failure of the market system to efficiently allocate resources to deal with extensive negative externalities, specifically those caused by carbon – based gases polluting the atmosphere. Failure in the market system is having a extravagant impact on atmosphere. The allocation of resources is affecting the environment but more specifically the carbon based gases are polluting the atmosphere. This is resulting in global climate change. Potential solutions will be analysed throughout this essay to prevent market failure. The solutions that will be considered are environmental taxation, government regulation and trading in marketable permits e.g. carbon credit market.

Market Failure …show more content…

Market failure is portrayed through this diagram as the optimum output is higher then the equilibrium resulting with spillover costs.

Property rights enable the parties to place a price tag on externality through negotiation, creating opportunities for both sides. The owner of property rights can negotiate with the party causing the negative externality. The owner will seek compensation for the cost of the externality (Jackson, Mciver, Bajada 2007:209). This is another issue regarding over allocating resources, as property is a commonly held resource. The externalities involved with property rights can be good for both sides. Depending on the negotiation the owner can cause negative externality because they have property rights and can decide what to do with the property. The party involved will seek compensation for the externality but this can lead to a reduction in output. So properties are another resource where market failure can occur.

Environmental taxation

Environmental taxation is when the government taxes items that are effecting the environment to cover the externality cost. The government taxes mostly on carbon based emissions as they are a major contributor to the climate change. Automobiles are a major contribution to effecting the environment. As shown below cars are the highest percentage on impacting the climate.

Producers and consumers of automobiles are not required to compensate

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