The Costs and Benefits of Air Pollution Control

摘要

This paper reviews three sets of U.S. air quality regulations in terms of their benefits and costs. A recent study of the benefits and costs of the Clean Air Act, 1970 to 1990, suggests that the benefits ofall air quality regulations issued during this period exceeded their costs; however, this did not necessarily hold for individual regulations. Even in the aggregate, the amount by which benefits exceeded costs is sensitive to the dollar value applied to premature deaths avoided.