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  5. Environmental Policy Since Earth Day I: What Have We Gained?

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Environmental Policy Since Earth Day I: What Have We Gained?

  • A. Myrick Freeman III
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 16, no. 1, Winter 2002
(pp. 125–146)
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Abstract

I review the data on costs and benefits of the major environmental laws passed during the 1970s. The winners in terms of benefit-cost analysis include: getting lead out of gasoline; controlling particulate air pollution; reducing the concentration of lead in drinking water; and the cleanup of hazardous waste sites with the lowest cost per cancer case avoided under Superfund The losers include: mobile source air pollution control; water pollution control; and many of the regulations and cleanup decisions taken under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and Superfund.

Citation

Freeman, A Myrick III. 2002. "Environmental Policy Since Earth Day I: What Have We Gained?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16 (1): 125–146. DOI: 10.1257/0895330027148

JEL Classification

  • Q28 Renewable Resources and Conservation: Government Policy
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