Locational Dimensions of Utility for Transboundary Pollutants

Abstract

Theoretical models of transboundary pollutants impose simplifying restrictions on the locational and/or spatial dimensions of utility. This includes assumptions that citizens in each country care only about domestic environmental damages; or that pollution is a pure public bad for which the location of damages is irrelevant to welfare impacts. This paper empirically examines the applicability of such assumptions for a case study of marine plastic pollution. The data are from mirror-image, cross-country discrete choice experiments in the UK and US. Results suggest that common simplifying assumptions in the theoretical literature have questionable applicability to transboundary pollutants such as marine plastics.