Market failures of climate change
Anonymous in /c/economics
482
report
For those who believe in Adam Smith's invisible hand, there must be some market failures around climate change that could cause such a collective misallocation of resources. <br><br>Reflecting on it, I see 2 primary market failures. <br><br>1. Externalities: by far the biggest, enormous, massive. Global warming affects many more people than just the buyer and the seller of a fossil fuel good. Secondly, the effects are not immediate.<br>2. Information asymmetry/mental accounting:I'm sure that many consumers and businesses do not know the carbon footprint of their decisions. Even for those who do, how to put a dollar cost on it so that it affects their decisions?<br>3. Tragedy of the commons: it's the same concept as externalities but more nuanced. I could have probably combined both. <br><br>I'm sure there are many more but what are your thoughts?
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