How do you calculate the net social welfare loss due to a negative externality in production?

If there exists a negative externality in the production of a good or service (eg. coal power station emitting greenhouse gases) the Marginal Social Cost (MSC) to society of producing the good will exceed the Marginal Private Cost (MPC) paid by the producer. This is due to the fact that the producer is does not have to pay compensation to society for the external cost. Because of the fact that the producer takes only its own interests into account when deciding how much to produce, the market mechanism will result in overproduction of the externality good, producing where Marginal Private Benefit = MPC instead of the socially optimum position where Marginal Social Benefit = MSC. This overproduction will lead to a net loss in social welfare, which can be calculated by multiplying the difference between MPC and MSC by half of the difference between the market level of production and the socially optimum level. This is more easily demonstrable diagrammatically, where the net welfare loss is equal to the area of a triangle formed by continuing a line up from the market level of production to the MSC line.

Answered by Scott N. Economics tutor

6039 Views

See similar Economics IB tutors

Related Economics IB answers

All answers ▸

How should I structure IB Economics Paper 1 style questions?


Why do firms in a perfect competition always make normal profit in the long run?


Explain the effect of placing an indirect tax on the consumption of fast foods in the UK


Qd=420-30P. From this equation identify the slope of the demand function and calculate the price at 60 units.


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2024

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy