In: Economics
A steel industry emits, other harmful pollutants , CO. There are 8 identical firms in this industry. Four of them are located near a city( urban area) while four of them are located in the country ( rural area) . They can install filters ( srubbers) in their exhaust to clean up part of their emissions. Their abatements costs related to CO clean up are described by MACi= 400- 8Ei, where i = 1,2,....8 . The emission of CO are locally dispersed. Due to higher population and structure density in the city , the marginal damage a unit of CO is causing in the urban area is higher than that in the rural area. More specifically these damages are described by MDu= 1.2 E and MDr=0.5 E
a. Find the units of emissions these 8 firms will emit if the CO emissions are left unregulated . How many units of emissions are released in each of the two areas
b. Find the aggregate marginal abatement cost function for each of the two area
c. What is the socially efficient level of emissions in each area and how many unit of emissions must be abated( in each area) compared to the unregulated level so that efficiency will be achieved
d. If the government sets the pollution levels at the socially efficient levels of emissions in each of the two areas, calculate the total abatement cost per firm in each of the two area