Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:51:53.804Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Use of Liability Rules in Controlling Hazardous Waste Accidents: Theory and Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

James J. Opaluch*
Affiliation:
Department of Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island, Kingston
Get access

Extract

Economists since Pigou have advocated the use of economic incentives for controlling environmental degradation. In a similar vein, environmental economists have long lamented a near unanimous reliance of environmental policy on the use of direct regulation. However, several pieces of legislation, as well as common law doctrine, provide strict liability for damages from a variety of pollution incidents. The term strict liability means that a polluter is liable for the penalty imposed for a pollution incident irrespective of intent, fault, or even knowledge of the pollution incident. Negligence need not be proved, thus strict liability allows for no defense of due care or conformance with common practice.

Type
AAEA/NAREA Invited Session: Economics of Hazardous Waste Disposal
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This research was supported by the University of Rhode Island Sea Grant Program and by the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station. (AES Contribution #2237).

References

Anderson, Robert. “Economic Perspectives on Oil Spill Damage Assessment.” Oil and Petrochemical Pollution 1 (1983):7983.Google Scholar
Bradley, Paul. “Marine Oil Spills: A Problem in Environmental Management.” Natural Resources Journal 14 (1974):337359.Google Scholar
Brown, John. 1973. “Toward an Economic Theory of Liability.” Journal of Legal Studies 2 (1973):323349.Google Scholar
Coase, Ronald. “The Problem of Social Cost.” Journal of Law and Economics 3 (1960).Google Scholar
Conrad, Jon. “Oil Spills: Policies for Prevention, Recovery, and Compensation.” Public Policy 28 (1980):143170.Google Scholar
Council on Environmental Quality. Environmental Quality 1982, 13th Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality.Google Scholar
DeGroot, Morris. Optimal Statistical Decisions. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1970.Google Scholar
Diamond, Peter. “Accident Law and Resource Allocation.” Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science 5 (1974):366405.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Peter H. and Ingene, Charles A.Uncertain Externalities, Liability Rules, and Resource Allocation.” Amer. Econ. Rev. 68 (1978):300310.Google Scholar
Just, Richard E. and Zilberman, David, “Asymmetry of Taxes and Subsidies in Regulating Stochastic Mishap.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 94 (1979):139148.Google Scholar
Lanfear, Kenneth and Amstutz, David. “A Reexamination of Occurrence Rates for Accidental Spills on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.” Presented at the 1983 Oil Spill Conference.Google Scholar
Opaluch, James J. and Grigalunas, Thomas A.Controlling Stochastic Pollution Event with Liability Rules: Some Evidence from OCS Leasing.” The Rand Journal of Economics 15 (1984):142151.Google Scholar
Polinsky, A. Mitchell. “Controlling Externalities and Protecting Entitlements: Property Rights, Liability Rules and Tax Subsidy Approach.” Journal of Legal Studies 8 (1979):148.Google Scholar
Rodgers, William. Environmental Law. St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1976.Google Scholar
Russell, Clifford S.Environmental Management.” In Brown, and Crutchfield, , eds., Economics of Ocean Resources. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Schoemaker, Paul. “The Expected Utility Model: Its Variants, Purposes, Evidence and Limitations.” Journal of Economic Literature 20 (1982):529563.Google Scholar
Shavell, Steven. “Strict Liability Versus Negligence.” J. Legal Studies 3 (1974):125.Google Scholar
Shirley, O. J., “The Cost of Regulatory Compliance on the Outer Continental Shelf: Report on an Industry Survey,” in Safety and Offshore Oil: Background Papers for the Committee on Assessment of Safety of OCS Activities, National Academy Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert. “A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice.Quarterly Journal of Economics 69 (1955):174183.Google Scholar
Smith, Richard A., Slack, James R., Wyant, Timothy and Lanfear, Kenneth J.The Oilspill Risk Analysis Model of the U.S. Geological Survey.” Geological Survey Professional Paper 1227. 1982.Google Scholar
Tversky, Amos and Kahnemann, Daniel. “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.” Science 185 (1974):99118.Google Scholar
Tversky, Amos and Kahnemann, Daniel. “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice.” Science 211 (1981):453458.Google Scholar
United States Department of Interior. 1983a. Federal Offshore Statistics, December 1983.Google Scholar
United States Department of Interior. 1983b. Regional Environmental Impact Statement: Gulf of Mexico. Vols. 1 & 2.Google Scholar
White, Michelle J. and Wittman, Donald. “Optimal Spatial Location Under Pollution Liability Rules and Zoning.” Journal of Legal Studies 10 (1981):249268.Google Scholar