摘要：Many environmentalists and policymakers are shifting their focus from media-specificpollution problems to product-specific, life-cycle environmental problems. In this paper, wedevelop a model of production and consumption that incorporates life-cycle environmentalexternalities—specifically, an upstream manufacturing byproduct, air or water pollution frommanufacturing, and downstream solid waste disposal. We then use the model to derive optimalgovernment policies to address all three externalities. We assume throughout that a Pigoviantax on waste disposal is precluded because of the potential for illegal dumping. We thenexamine four cases: one in which Pigovian taxes on the upstream externalities are feasible, onein which such taxes are infeasible, and two final cases in which the upstream pollutant issubject to one of two different types of regulatory standards. In general, we find that no singleinstrument can solve multiple problems, contrary to what some observers have suggested.However, we find that there are alternative ways of reaching the social optimum. We alsodiscover that a so-called "integrated" approach to policy appears to be important, no matterwhat policy options are adopted. And finally, we find that there is only a limited role forproduct "life-cycle assessments"—enumerations of all of the resources used and pollutantsemitted throughout an entire product life-cycle.
