Externalities

Terms of Economics and Public Management

Collection

zero Useful+1

zero

synonym External effects (External effect) generally refers to externality

Externality is also called overflow effect 、 External influences , heterodyne effect or External effects 、 external economy It refers to the situation where the actions and decisions of one person or group of people have damaged or benefited another person or group of people. Economic externalities yes Economic subject (including manufacturers or individuals) economic activity Non market impact on others and society. I.e Members of society The costs and consequences of economic activities (including organizations and individuals) are not fully borne by the actor. Divided into Positive externality (positive externality) and Negative externality (negative externality)。 Positive externalities are economic behavior Individual activities benefit others or society, and the beneficiaries do not need to spend costs; Negative externalities are the activities of an individual economic behavior that damage others or society, but the person who causes negative externalities does not bear the cost.

Chinese name: Externalities
Foreign name: Externality

Introduction: Terms of Economics and Public Management
Part of speech: noun
Classification: effect

catalog

Economy

Announce

edit

from economics From the perspective of Marshall and Pigou At the beginning of the 20th century Economic subject (Producers or consumers) have a beneficial or adverse impact on the welfare of onlookers in their own activities. The benefits (or benefits) or losses (or costs) caused by such beneficial impact are not obtained or borne by the producers or consumers themselves Economic power The "non market" side effect on another economic force.

Externalities

The existence of externalities causes the society to break away from the most effective production state, making Market economy system It cannot be well implemented Optimize resource allocation Basic functions of.

Example

Announce

edit

In production Negative externality

The pollutants discharged by factories in production are a negative externality. What it caused social cost Including the cost of government pollution control, natural resources And the harm of pollutants to human health.

In production Positive externality

Education is a positive externality. The talents cultivated by a perfect education system will contribute to social construction, which is beneficial to all people. It is also a positive externality to build a beautiful building so that everyone in this area can enjoy the scenery.

Negative externalities in consumption

Someone has a dog. The dog likes to bark every night. This person is accustomed to nightlife, so he does not feel troubled about it. But his neighbors are used to going to bed early, and every day they will lose sleep because of the barking of dogs, so they have to spend money to buy sleeping pills. Keeping a dog here is a negative externality for the neighbor.

Positive externalities in consumption

Take a recent example, a person who has received a swine flu vaccine. This consumption is not only good for himself, but also for the people around him. That is, the source of infection of the virus is reduced. This is also a positive externality.

Public Management

Announce

edit

Externalities are also called external effects or external economy , according to which the economic parties (producers and consumers) Consumer behavior The effect that will exert beneficial or harmful influence on the production and consumption behavior of other economic parties (producers and consumers). Externalities should be divided into positive external effects and negative external effects. Good or positive effects are called positive external effects (such as the benefits brought to beekeepers by flower beds or orchards); Bad or negative effects are called external negative effects (such as negative or harmful effects on the environment caused by the spread of harmful chemicals and noise in chemical plants). When external effects appear, it is generally impossible to pass market mechanism To achieve social resources Purpose of effective configuration. Since the existence of external effects cannot be solved through the market mechanism, the government should take this responsibility. The government can subsidize or directly public sector To promote the output of positive external effects; To limit or contain the output of external negative effects through direct regulation, for example, the government can administrative decree The enterprise or individual must control the amount of pollution below this legal level, or the government must levy Emission tax And other ways to control the environmental pollution problems of enterprises or individuals.

Economic Interpretation

Announce

edit

When individuals or enterprises do not pay all the costs or enjoy all the benefits of their actions, economists believe that there is externality.

Basic ideas for solving externalities

Internalize the externalities through Institutional arrangements Economic subject economic activity Resulting Social benefits or social cost , converted to Private benefits or Private costs It refers to the transformation of technical externalities into monetary externalities, which, to some extent, forces the transfer of money that did not exist before.

Typical approach

1. Taxes and subsidies

Any kind of economic activity will have an external impact. For example, automobile transportation will inevitably produce waste gas to pollute the environment, and afforestation and forestry will result in environmental improvement. This is the externality of economy. If the former is“ Negative externality ”The latter should be called“ Positive externality ”。 Externality distorted market subject The relationship between costs and benefits will lead to market inefficiency or even failure. If negative externalities cannot be curbed, the environment on which economic development depends will continue to deteriorate, and eventually the conditions for economic development will be lost.

Therefore, negative externalities can be taxed and positive externalities can be subsidized. Taxation can restrain negative externalities economic activity ； Subsidies can stimulate economic activities that generate positive externalities. This kind of tax used to eliminate negative externalities is called Pigou tax (Pigovian tax).

two Coase theorem

If there is a division of property rights, transaction cost When the number of participants is low, people can solve external problems through private negotiations. As mentioned above, the problem of keeping a dog may be that the dog owner gives compensation to the neighbors to accept the dog ownership, or the dog owner puts a mouth cover on the dog to prevent the barking from disturbing the people.

three business combination

four emission standard

5. Administrative Access

classification

Announce

edit

Whether in natural science Still in social sciences The classification is the foundation of the problem research. According to the different manifestations of externalities, externalities can be classified from the following seven different perspectives:

Influence effect

external economy And External diseconomy

Most economics textbooks mention that externalities can be divided into external economies (or positive external economic effects, positive externalities) and external diseconomies (or negative external economic effects, negative externalities). External economy is the phenomenon that some people's production or consumption benefits others but cannot charge others; External diseconomy is the phenomenon that some people's production or consumption has damaged others and the former cannot compensate the latter. For example, the beauty of the private garden brings beauty to passers-by, but he does not have to pay for it. In this way, the owner of the private garden creates an external environment for passers-by economic effects Has. Another example is that the sound volume of the neighbor next door is turned on too much, which affects my sleep. At this time, the neighbor next door brings me an external economic effect.

Production field

Externalities of production and consumption

The externality of production is the externality caused by production activities, and the externality of consumption is the externality caused by consumption behavior. past economic theory What we attach importance to is Production field The externalities of. Since the 1970s, the research scope of externality theory has expanded to Consumption field 。 From the two classifications of external economy and external diseconomy, production externality and consumption externality, externalities can be further divided into four types: external economy of production, external economy of consumption, external diseconomy of production and external diseconomy of consumption.

Further subdivision, the external effects can be divided into eight types: the external economy of producers, such as the relationship between fruit garden owners and bee farmers; The external economy of producers to consumers, such as the impact of garden style factory buildings on residents in surrounding residential areas; External economy of consumers to producers, such as Residential environment The improvement of Productive investment ； The external economy of consumers, such as the impact of private gardens on passers-by; External diseconomy of producers to producers, such as pollution of upstream chemical plants to downstream fishing grounds; External diseconomy of producers to consumers, such as the impact of construction on residents who rest at night; The external diseconomy of consumers to producers, such as the impact of the noise of air conditioners on the dentist next door; The external diseconomy of consumers to consumers, such as the singing of neighbors next door, affects their rest.

Time and space generated

Intergenerational externalities and intergenerational externalities

The usual externalities are Spatial concept , mainly from spot Consider whether resources are reasonably allocated, which mainly refers to internal externalities; The problem of intergenerational externalities is mainly to solve the interaction of human intergenerational behavior, especially to eliminate the adverse effects of previous generations on future generations and contemporary generations on future generations. This kind of externality can be called "the externality extending from the present to the future". This classification stems from the concept of sustainable development. The intergenerational externalities can also be divided into intergenerational external economy and intergenerational external diseconomy.

External problems are no longer limited to disputes between enterprises and between enterprises and residents in the same region, but have expanded to major problems between regions and between countries, that is, the scope of internal and external space is expanding. At the same time, the problem of intergenerational externalities has become increasingly prominent, ecological damage , environmental pollution resource depletion The shortage of fresh water has endangered the survival of future generations.

Preconditions

Competitive conditions Externality under the condition of monopoly

William Jack Baumol (William Jack Baumol) not only analyzed the externalities under the conditions of competition, but also examined the externalities under the conditions of monopoly. He believed that the external economic problems under the conditions of competition were different from those under the conditions of monopoly. He gave an example: "When a manufacturer expands its scale, it will improve the Transport efficiency This expansion may not be beneficial if it is carried out by one manufacturer alone, but it will still benefit if the industry is monopolized by one person. " This means that, competitiveness The external economy (or external diseconomy) of a firm in a sector is not necessarily the external economy (or external diseconomy) of the monopolist.

James Edward Mead In his article External Economy and Diseconomy under Competition published in 1962, he comprehensively analyzed the external economy and diseconomy produced under competitive conditions. Most externality theories are based on perfect competition Therefore, Baumol made a discussion on the externalities under the conditions of competition and monopoly systems analysis 。 Ten years later, Mead still made an in-depth analysis of the externalities under competitive conditions.

stability

Stable and unstable externalities

The vast majority of literatures on externality theory published stable externalities. The so-called stable externalities refer to the externalities that can be mastered. People can internalize such externalities through various coordination methods.

In 1978, Greenwood and Ingina published the article "Unstable External Impact, Responsibility Rules and Resource Allocation", which analyzed the unstable externalities. Their analysis method is as follows: assuming that one manufacturer's influence on another is arbitrary, then in this case, the manufacturer will encounter risks. When considering the maximization problem, the manufacturer should share the externalities with its own Risk attitude All estimated. So, whether to solve the problem through consultation or by Consolidation method It depends on the manufacturer's expectation of risk. Another case of unstable externalities is Scientific and technological achievements Of Uncertainty 。 The uncertainty of science and technology and the exposure of its side effects need an incubation period, which often leads to serious Ecological environment problems 。 In other words, human beings are likely to be deceived by the tremendous power of science and technology. for example DDT Invention and use of:

DDT was founded in 1874 by a Swiss chemist Paul Herman Muller synthesis. In 1938, Mueller discovered its broad-spectrum and efficient insecticidal ability, which can play a magical role in agricultural pests and household pests. In 1942, it began mass production and became practical. Therefore, the 1948 Nobel Prize Physiology And the medical prize went to Muller. At this time, it brings great positive externalities; However, DDT is a toxic compound that is difficult to degrade. Long term use of DDT will accumulate in the environment and organisms, causing environmental pollution. Research shows that the agricultural products aquatic 、 livestock 、 poultry There are DDT residues in the body, which will accumulate in the liver and adipose tissue after entering the human body, resulting in chronic poisoning. At this time, what it brings is a huge external diseconomy effect. Because of this, all countries have banned the use of this pesticide.

directional

Unidirectional Externality and Interactive Externality

stay OECD Prepared《 Economic means in environmental management 》This classification is proposed in the book.

One way externality refers to the external economy or external diseconomy brought by one party to the other. For example, the discharge of wastewater from the upstream of the chemical plant has led to the reduction of fish production in the downstream fishing grounds, while the downstream fishing grounds have neither external economic effects on the upstream chemical plant nor external uneconomic effects. This is called the one-way externality of the chemical plant to the fishing grounds. A large number of externalities belong to one-way externalities.

The externality of interaction means that all parties have the right to access a certain resource and can impose costs on each other (usually on resources under public property rights). For example, all countries ecological environment It has caused damage, and there are external diseconomies between them. This is the externality of interaction.

A special case of interaction externalities is two-way externalities. Bidirectional externality refers to the existence of externalities between two economic entities. There are three main forms: one is the external economy between Party A and Party B; Second, the external diseconomy between Party A and Party B; Third, Party A has external economic effects on Party B while Party B has external economic effects on Party A, or vice versa. For example, beekeepers and litchi The relationship between garden owners is inseparable for bees to make honey pollen That is to say, the owner of litchi orchard has external economic effect on beekeepers; On the contrary, after the litchi blossom, it is necessary for bees to impart pollen. At this time, beekeepers have external economic effects on the owners of litchi gardens. Of course, the external economic effects brought to each other by beekeepers and lychee garden owners are not necessarily equal. If the two are exactly equal, it means that the external economic effects offset each other. If the two are not equal, it means that some economic entities have taken advantage of them and some have suffered losses.

root

Institutional externalities and technological externalities

New Institutional Economics Enriched and developed the externality theory, and integrated the externality, property rights and Institutional change Linking together to introduce externalities system analysis in Zhu Zhongbin This kind of externality is called "institutional externality". Institutional externalities mainly have three meanings:

First, the system is a kind of public goods , which is easy to produce externalities;

Second, the benefits that exist in one system and cannot be obtained in another system (or vice versa) are external economies or external diseconomies brought about by institutional change;

Third, under certain institutional arrangements, because the cost of prohibiting voluntary negotiations or voluntary negotiations is extremely high, the benefits received by economic individuals are inconsistent with the costs paid, so there are external benefits or costs.

Our proverb "one monk carries water, two monks carry water, and three monks have no water" contains the significance of institutional externalities. Institutional externalities are essentially social responsibility Asymmetry with rights. In the process of reform, the main problem to be solved is how to Members of society in distribution system The new benefits brought by the reform: First“ thumb a lift ”-- That is, those who work hard for the reform cannot get the corresponding full reward; The second is "victim" - that is, some people bear the cost that others should bear in the reform. The former situation makes the reform lack motivation, while the latter situation makes the reform increase resistance.

Science and technology externality is a concept that has not yet been used, but it has objectively been widespread. It generally includes the following aspects: First, scientific and technological achievements are highly external public goods , if there is no valid excitation mechanism Will lead to insufficient supply of this product; Second, Scientific and technological progress It is often the Yangtze River that pushes the waves ahead, and the promotion and application of one achievement can open the way for the research, development and application of other achievements; Third, the systematic nature and network of the network itself internal information Flow and logistics Interactivity and Network infrastructure long-term Monopoly Caused by internet economy Externalities of.

[Edit]

External development

Announce

edit

Many economists Externality theory But there are few economists with milestone significance. When it comes to the externality theory, the names of the three economists must be mentioned, and they can also be mentioned as a milestone. The names of these three economists are Marshall 、 Pigou and Coase 。

（1） The first milestone Marshall's "external economy" theory

Marshall is a British“ Cambridge School ”Is the founder of Neoclassical economics Delegate of. Marshall did not explicitly put forward the concept of externality, but the concept of externality originated from Marshall's Principles of Economics The concept of "external economy" proposed in.

In Marshall's view, in addition to the three types of land, labor and capital that have been mentioned many times before production factors In addition, there is another element, which is "industrial organization". The content of industrial organization is quite rich, including division of labor, improvement of machines, relative concentration of related industries mass production , and business management 。 Marshall used the concepts of "internal economy" and "external economy" to explain how changes in the fourth type of production factors can lead to increased output.

Marshall pointed out: "We can divide the economy resulting from the expansion of the production scale of any kind of goods into two categories: the first is the general developed economy that depends on the industry; the second is the economy that depends on the resources, organization and efficiency of individual enterprises engaged in the industry. We can call the former the external economy, and the latter the internal economy. In this chapter, we mainly study the internal economy; But now we need to continue to study the very important external economy, which can often be affected by many similar small business Concentrate on a specific place - that is, what is usually said Industrial area Distribution -- and get. " He also pointed out: "The general conclusion of this article shows the following two points: first, the Total production Generally, such a Representativeness The scale of the enterprise will increase all its internal economies; Second, the increase in total production often increases the external economy it obtains, so that it can spend less labor and cost proportionally to produce goods. " "In other words, we can generally say that the role of nature in production shows a tendency of diminishing returns, while the role of human beings shows a tendency of increasing returns. The law of diminishing returns can be explained as follows: the increase of labor and capital generally leads to the improvement of organizations, while the improvement of organizations increases the efficiency of labor and capital use."

It can be seen from Marshall's statement that the so-called internal economy is caused by various factors within the enterprise Production cost Savings, these influence factor Including the enthusiasm of workers Job skills The improvement of internal division and cooperation, the adoption of advanced equipment, the improvement of management level Administrative expenses And so on. The so-called external economy refers to the reduction of production costs caused by various factors outside the enterprise, including the enterprise's departure from the place of supply of raw materials and Product sales Market proximity Market capacity Size, convenience of transportation and communication Development level wait. In fact, Marshall called the efficiency improvement brought about by division of labor within the enterprise as internal economy, which is in the Microeconomics As described in scale economy That is, with the expansion of production, Long term average cost Reduction of; The efficiency improvement caused by division of labor among enterprises is called external economy, which is“ Wenzhou Model ”Ubiquitous in Massive economic The source of.

Although Marshall did not put forward the concepts of internal diseconomy and external diseconomy, he could logically deduce the concepts and meanings of internal diseconomy and external diseconomy from his exposition of internal economy and external economy. The so-called internal diseconomy refers to the increase of production costs caused by various factors within the enterprise; The so-called external diseconomy refers to the increase of production costs caused by various factors outside the enterprise. Marshall took the enterprise's own development as the research center, and investigated various factors that affect the change of enterprise costs from both internal and external aspects. This analysis method provided infinite imagination for economic successors.

First, as mentioned above, there must be internal diseconomy if there is internal economy, and external diseconomy if there is external economy. Marshall's theory can be developed from the simplest level.

Secondly, the external economy Marshall investigated is the impact of external factors on the enterprise, so it naturally comes to mind how the behavior of the enterprise will affect the costs and benefits of other enterprises. This problem was completed by the famous economist Pigou.

Third, from the perspective of internal division of labor within enterprises and external division of labor among enterprises, we naturally think of Coase's《 Nature of the enterprise 》Are the two important documents, "The Social Cost Problem" and "The Social Cost Problem", influenced by Marshall's thought.

（2） The second milestone - Pigou's“ Pigou tax ”Theory

Pigou, Marshall's direct disciple, published the book Wealth and Welfare in 1912, which was later revised and enriched, and changed its name to Welfare Economics Publication. This work is Pigou's masterpiece western economics The first systematic discussion in development welfare economics Monograph on problems. Therefore, Pigou is called "the father of welfare economics".

Pigou systematically studied externalities from the perspective of welfare economics for the first time with the method of modern economics, expanded the concept and content of "external diseconomy" on the basis of the concept of "external economy" proposed by Marshall, and shifted the research on externalities from the effect of external factors on enterprises to the effect of enterprises or residents on other enterprises or residents. This transformation is just corresponding to the two kinds of definitions of externality.

Pigou explained externality by analyzing the deviation between marginal private net output value and marginal social net output value. He pointed out that the marginal private net output value refers to the output value obtained by individual enterprises by adding a unit of production factor in production, and the marginal social net output value refers to the output value increased by adding a unit of production factor in production from the perspective of the whole society. He believes that if the marginal private net output value of each factor of production in production is equal to the marginal social net output value, its marginal social net output value in all production purposes is equal, and product price be equal to marginal cost It means that the resource allocation has reached the optimal state. But Pigou believes that there is the following relationship between the marginal private net product and the marginal social net product: if other people get benefits in addition to the marginal private net product, then the marginal social net product is greater than the marginal private net product; On the contrary, if others suffer losses, the marginal social net product will be less than the marginal private net product. Pigou Production activities The beneficial impact on society is called“ marginal social benefit ”； The negative impact of certain production activities of producers on society is called "marginal social cost".

Properly change the concept used by Pigou. Externality is actually the margin Private costs And margin social cost 、 marginal private benefit Inconsistency with marginal social benefits. When there is no external effect, the marginal private cost is caused by the production or consumption of an article Total cost 。 When exists Negative externalities Because of the environmental pollution of one manufacturer, another manufacturer must increase the cost of installing pollution control facilities in order to maintain the original output. This is External costs 。 The sum of marginal private cost and marginal external cost is the marginal social cost. When there are positive externalities, Enterprise decision-making The income generated is not completely owned by the enterprise, and there are external income. The sum of marginal private income and marginal external income is marginal social income. adopt economic model It can be explained that when there are external economic effects Individualism The mechanism cannot be implemented social resources Of Pareto optimality to configure.

It should be noted that although Pigou borrowed and extended the concepts of "external economy" and "external diseconomy" from Marshall, Pigou gave these two concepts different meanings from Marshall. Marshall mainly mentioned the concept of "external economy", which means that when an enterprise expands its production scale, it is caused by various external factors Unit cost Reduction of. In other words, Marshall meant Enterprise activities Affected from the outside, Pigou refers to the external impact of enterprise activities. These two problems look very similar, but actually they are studying two different problems or two aspects of a problem. Pigou has greatly advanced Marshall's externality theory.

Since marginal private income and marginal social income, marginal private cost and marginal social cost deviate from each other, it is impossible to achieve this by relying on free competition social welfare maximal. So the government should take appropriate measures economic policy , eliminate this deviation. The economic policy that the government should adopt is: tax the departments whose marginal private cost is less than the marginal social cost, that is, tax the enterprises when there is external economic effect; Rewards and subsidies will be given to departments whose marginal private income is less than marginal social income, that is, subsidies will be given to enterprises when there are external economic effects. Pigou believes that the internalization of external effects can be achieved through such taxes and subsidies. This policy proposal was later called "Pigou tax".

Pigou tax economic activity It is widely used in. The policy of "who benefits, who invests" adopted in the field of infrastructure construction environmental protection The policy of "who pollutes, who governs" adopted in the field is the specific application of Pigou's theory. Pollution charge system Has become an important part of environmental protection in the world economic means Its theoretical basis is also Pigou tax.

limitations

First, the premise of Pigou's theory is the existence of the so-called“ Social welfare function ”, the government is public interest And can consciously follow the public interest To generate External economic activities. However, in fact, Public decision-making There are great limitations^[1] 。

Second, Pigou tax The premise of application is that the government must know the marginal costs or benefits of all individuals who cause externalities and are affected by them, and own and decide Pareto optimality Only in this way can the government determine the optimal tax rate and subsidy for all information related to resource allocation. However, in reality, the government is not omnipotent, it can not have enough information, so theoretically speaking, Pigou tax is perfect, but the actual implementation effect is quite different from the expected.

Third, government intervention It also costs money. If the cost of government intervention is greater than the loss caused by externalities economic efficiency From the perspective of eliminating externalities, it is not worth it.

Fourth, rent-seeking activities may occur in the use of Pigou tax, which will lead to waste of resources and distortion of resource allocation.

（3） The third milestone -- Coase's“ Coase theorem ”

Coase is New Institutional Economics Because he "discovered and clarified transaction cost and property Economic Institutional structure And the significance of operation " nobel prize in economics 。 Coase's award-winning achievement lies in two papers, one of which is Social Cost. The theoretical background of Social Cost Issues is that the internalization of external effects has been dominated by the Pigou tax theory for a long time. In the Social Cost Problem, Coase mentioned the Pigou tax many times. To some extent, Coase's theory was formed in the process of criticizing Pigou's theory. Coase's criticism of Pigou tax mainly focuses on the following aspects:

First, the external effect is not a one-way problem that one party infringes on the other, but has reciprocity. For example, between the chemical plant and the residential area environmental dispute If it is not clear whether the chemical plant has the right to discharge pollution, it will be levied once the chemical plant discharges waste water Pollution tax This is not serious. Because chemical plants may be built before residential areas. In this case, perhaps the chemical plant has the right to discharge pollution. To limit the discharge of waste water from chemical plants, perhaps it is not the government that levies taxes on chemical plants, but the residential areas that "buy" chemical plants.

Second, when the transaction cost is zero, Pigou tax is unnecessary. Because at this time, through voluntary negotiation between both parties Resource allocation The optimization result of. Since the property right is clearly defined, voluntary negotiation can also achieve the best Pollution level It can achieve the same effect as Pigou tax, so why should the government meddle?

Third, when transaction costs are not zero, the internalization of external effects can only be determined through the cost benefit trade-off of various policy instruments. In other words, Pigou tax may be effective Institutional arrangements , or it may be an inefficient institutional arrangement.

The above criticism constitutes the so-called Coase theorem If the transaction cost is zero, no matter how rights are defined, resources can be obtained through market transaction and voluntary negotiation Optimal configuration ； If transaction costs are not zero, institutional arrangements and choices are important. That is to say, to solve the externalities, market transactions, namely voluntary negotiation, may be used instead of Pigou tax.

Coase theorem further consolidated Economic liberalism And further strengthened the economic concept of "the market is beautiful". And the Pigou theory is incorporated into its own theoretical framework: when the transaction cost is zero, there is no need for "Pigou tax" to solve external problems; When the transaction cost is not zero, the means to solve the externality problem should be based on the overall comparison of costs and benefits. Perhaps Pigou's method is effective, or Coase's method is effective. It can be seen that Coase has stood on the shoulder of Pigou, the giant. Some scholars regard Coase's theory as a complete negation of Pigou's theory, which is a misunderstanding. In fact, Coase's theory is a sublation of Pigou's theory.

With the 1970s environmental problems With the increase of, market economy National start Active exploration Coase's theory has been put into practical application as the specific way to realize the internalization of externalities. In the field of environmental protection Emission trading system It is a specific application of Coase's theory. The successful practice of Coase's theory further shows that“ Market Failure ”It's not government intervention necessary and sufficient condition Government intervention is not necessarily the only way to solve "market failure".

limitations

First, Coase's theory cannot play a role in an economy with a low degree of marketization. especially developing country , on Market-oriented reform In the process, some still leave obvious planned economy Traces, some are still in Transitional economy State, versus real market economy There is a big gap. For example, in Shanghai Suzhou Creek In the process of governance, American experts constantly promote their Right to pollution Trading system, but the trial results are not good.

Second, transaction costs should be considered in the way of voluntary negotiation. Whether voluntary negotiation is feasible depends on the size of transaction costs. If the transaction cost is higher than that of the society net profit , then voluntary negotiation will lose its meaning. In an economic society with an imperfect legal system and no credibility, transaction costs are bound to be very large, which greatly limits the possibility of the application of this means and makes it not have a universal reality Applicability 。

Third, the premise for the possibility of voluntary consultation is that property rights are clearly defined. In fact, like environmental resource In this way public goods Property rights are often difficult to define or expensive to define, which makes voluntary negotiation lose premise.

No theory can be perfect, and Coase's theory is no exception. Nevertheless, it is no exaggeration to say that Coase has laid the third milestone in the development of externality theory, and its theoretical and practical significance is far from limited to externality issues, opening up a very broad space for economic research.

conceptual meaning

Announce

edit

In the famous New Institutional Economist Zhang Wuchang Professor and Xinxing Classical economist Yang Xiaokai There, the concept of externality was mentioned many times, and the concept of externality was ambiguous Tautology The concept of externality is meaningless.

In Zhang Wuchang's works, the concept of externality is described as a "vague" concept. He said: "If externalities are limited to those economically important, but their behavioral rights are not clearly defined, so they do not have the effect of trading in the market, then it is very ambiguous." "Pigou seems to say that various externalities are different from each other, but there is no convincing reason why they are different. Ambiguity has since become a tradition in 'externality' literature, but the nature of this problem is still unclear. " "Externalities seem to focus on different 'deviations' and ignore the economic problem 。‘ The concept of "externality" is ambiguous, because every behavior has an effect; This concept is also easy to cause confusion, because various classifications and theories are different from each other, with great randomness, and are all special cases. For these reasons, various theories generated by the concept of 'externality' cannot be useful. "

Then, why do "externalities" emerge in large numbers? Zhang Wuchang attributed it to three aspects: first, the lack of signing rights; Second, the contract exists but the terms are not comprehensive; Third, some clauses are inconsistent with some marginal equations for unknown reasons. Therefore, Zhang Wuchang advocated that Contract theory Replace the externality theory. Zhang Wuchang pointed out: "No matter how large the total value of the out of contract effect is, as long as the marginal value of the marginal out of contract effect is zero under the condition of private maximization, the Pareto condition can be met. Therefore, the existence of the out of contract effect does not mean the wrong allocation of resources in itself. Therefore, Private costs and social cost Unless it is considered that the deviation is clearly related to the margin of action, it does not mean that the government needs to take corrective action. "

Zhang Wuchang's criticism of the externality theory is manifested in three aspects:

First, when talking about externalities without a clear definition of property rights, the concept of externalities is ambiguous. Who on earth produces externalities to whom?

Second, the reason why the concept of externality is ambiguous is that the contract itself is incomplete or imperfect, and the reason why it is incomplete or imperfect is that the cost of obtaining information needs to be paid;

Third, since the concept of externality is ambiguous, replacing externality theory with contract theory is more consistent with the real world. In Zhang Wuchang's view, all economic activities can be regarded as a contractual arrangement.

Yang Xiaokai 、 Zhang Yongsheng On《 New Classical Economics and Ultra marginal Analysis 》The book also involves the evaluation of external concepts for many times. In the book, they pointed out: "Zhang Wuchang believes that external effects are meaningless concepts, and the essence of the problem is transaction costs. The so-called external effects are essentially a dilemma between the exogenous transaction costs of defining property rights and the endogenous transaction costs caused by not defining property rights." "Externalities are meaningless concepts. Taking emissions as an example, the extent of externalities is defined by Emission right It is determined by the dilemma between the costs (exogenous transaction costs) and the economic distortions (endogenous transaction costs) caused by not defining emission rights, and the voluntary contracts in the market will automatically find the optimal pollution level in the society. "

Taking a comprehensive view of Yang Xiaokai's New Classical Economics and Ultra marginal Analysis, their criticism of the external theory is mainly reflected in the following opinions:

First, in transaction cost In case of zero, different Property right arrangement Can lead to resource allocation Pareto optimality 。 Since the transaction cost is zero, there is no externality, or the concept of externality is meaningless. If there is externality, it is only the initial state in imagination. Because of voluntary negotiation, it will leave this initial state immediately.

Second, there is no need for the concept of externality with the concept of transaction cost. The essence of the traditional externality problem is the problem of transaction cost, that is, to save the exogenous transaction costs and savings that define property rights Definition of property rights The dilemma between endogenous transaction costs caused by ambiguity.

Third, we should replace the concept of externality with endogenous transaction costs and exogenous transaction costs, or internalize the externality. Yang Xiaokai The essence of all economic problems is regarded as transaction costs. In the emerging classical property rights economic model of Yang Xiaokai and others, the external effects are generated internally.

So, is the concept of externality meaningful? Marshall 、 Pigou 、 Coase The externality theory of classical economics Developed on the basis of, Zhang Wuchang The new institutional economics theory of Yang Xiaokai and the new classical economics theory of Yang Xiaokai also come from classical economics. They are from the same root, but they are developing in different directions.

Represented by Marshall Neoclassical economics , is research scarce resources The knowledge of rational allocation among various economic uses focuses on the optimization of resources under a given degree of scarcity Configuration problems , using concepts such as economies of scale and externalities Marginal analysis Etc.

New classical economics represented by Yang Xiaokai inherits the tradition of classical economics, focuses on how division of labor can reduce the scarcity of resources, and how to make a country richer Specialized economy The concept of general equilibrium , using inframarginal analysis 。 If classical economics is regarded as the source, then neoclassical economics and emerging classical economics are only two branches evolved from it. They have their own concepts, categories, methods and Theoretical system Both have made contributions to economics and have their own scope of application. The concept of externality is applicable to marginal analysis, while the concept of specialization is applicable to inframarginal analysis. Although inframarginal analysis may include marginal analysis, it is difficult to completely deny the theory of externality.

If we compare the hypermarginal analysis to Einstein's relativity , liken marginal analysis to Newtonian mechanics Einstein did not completely deny Newtonian mechanics. In many cases, the application of Newtonian mechanics is more simple and convenient.

Research direction

Announce

edit

After World War II, the theory of externality mainly evolved along the following three paths:

(1) Follow Pigou The research thought of the traffic jam The problem, the common pool of producers who depend on each other in oil and fishing areas, and the increasingly concerned environmental pollution.

(2) For externalities (especially External diseconomy ）Many "internalization" approaches are proposed. In addition to the traditional way of government intervention, in 1960, Coase Put forward the idea of clarifying property rights.

(3) Along Marshall , especially Younger's scale economy （ Dynamic external economy ）Development of ideas. In 1970, Zipman published the article "External Economy of Scale and Competitive Equilibrium" in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, inheriting this idea again. In 1986, University of Chicago Paul Romer Published the article "Increasing Returns and Long term Growth" in the Journal of Political Economy, which systematically established a competitive dynamic with external effects for the first time equilibrium model 。 In a word, with the efforts of the above economists and their followers, the theoretical study of externalities has become a new hotspot in modern economic research.

Novice on the road

Growth task Getting Started with Editing Edit Rule Edit by myself

I have questions

Content query Online Service Official post bar Feedback

Complaints and suggestions

Report bad information Failed to appeal through entries Complaint of infringement information Blocking query and unblocking

Jinggong Network Anbei No. 1100000200001