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Examination 1
These multiple choice questions are from the exam bank. If you believe one or more answers are
not correct, then speak with the instructor. He is human and makes mistakes.
Lecture 1 - Introduction to Environmental and Natural Resource
Economics
1. What is the Environmental Economics?
a) The branch of economics that studies how environmental and natural resources are developed
and managed.
b) The branch of economics that shows how to exploit natural resources as quickly as possible.
c) The psychological study of relationships between humans and natural resources.
d) All answers above are correct.
2.Which of the following answers applies to renewable natural resource?
a) Environmental economics to bring harmony to the economic system and the environment.
b) Study environmental economics to bring harmony to the economic system and the political
system.
c) Study environmental economics to find harmony with oneself.
d) Study environmental economics to find harmony with other people.
5. When economists say a product has a high cost for a good, what does it mean?
a) Public Immunization.
b) Traffic jams.
c) A neighbor’s barking dog.
d) All answers above are correct.
7. Since 1886, the British Telecom supplies telephone and communication services to its citizens.
It has a 100% market share. What kind of company is it?
a) Oligopoly.
b) Duopoly.
c) Monopoly.
d) None of the answers above is correct.
8. Which good below is a public good?
a) Help a person or institution to choose a project with the lowest benefits and highest costs.
b) Help a person or institution to choose a project with the highest benefits and lowest costs.
c) Help a person or institution to choose a project with the highest benefits and costs.
d) Help a person or institution to choose a project with the lowest benefits and costs.
10. What is an open resource?
1. a 2. b 3. b 4. a 5. c 6.a
7. c 8. a 9. b 10.a 11.a
a) Economic growth.
b) Population growth.
c) Economic stagflation.
d) Financial growth.
3.Which countries are big recyclers?
a) Low-income countries.
b) Low population countries.
c) High population countries.
d) High-income countries.
4.Which Law of Thermodynamics states “The change in the internal energy of a closed
thermodynamic system is equal to the sum of the amount of heat energy supplied to or removed
from the system and the work done on or by the system?”
a) Financial growth.
b) Economic growth.
c) Population growth.
d) Economic stagflation.
7. Why is the world’s population growth rate slowing?
a) Nothing is changing.
b) The people’s welfare is decreasing.
c) The mortality level is increasing.
d) The economy is expanding and we have economic growth.
10. Some model the population growth rate by Pt = P0ert. Which of the following is true about this
equation?
a) The equation predicts that the population growth will slow down and become negative.
b) Reinforces Malthus’ idea that the population keeps growing, putting pressure on resources and
the environment.
c) The human race is doomed.
d) The equation predicts that humans will hit a maximum population limit.
11. Which country or continent has been devastated by HIV?
a) Asia.
b) Africa.
c) United States.
d) Australia.
12. What is the impact of high market prices on society?
a) Pollution increases initially as a country develops its industry and then begins to decline after
reaching a certain level of economic progress.
b) That in the early stages of economic growth, degradation and pollution increase, but beyond
some level of income per capita, the trend reverses. High-income levels per capita leads to
environmental improvements.
c) That economic inequality decreases over time while a country is developing, then after a certain
average income is attained, inequality begins to increase.
d) That the relationship between per capita income and the use of natural resources and/or the
emission of wastes has an upside down U-shape.
14. Which explanation does not refer to Environmental Kuznets Curve:
a) A natural transition of economic development from agrarian economies, to heavy polluting
industries, and finally to cleaner service economies.
b) High-income countries export their pollution to less developed countries.
c) Environmental quality is a flow variable that improves over time.
d) High-income countries can afford to pay the higher pollution abatement costs.
15. One of the important implications of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is that:
a) At low levels of income, pollution does not rise with flat growth because the pollution response is
weak.
b) Growth and development in a country does not necessarily lead to environmental degradation.
c) As income falls, the willingness to pay for environmental quality rises, and increasingly large
sacrifices in consumption are made to provide great environmental benefits.
d) Below a threshold level of pollution, the dirtiest technology will not be used.
16. There is empirical evidence that the amount of environmental regulation increases with the
level of income. Which of the following reason(s) are correct?
a) Pollution damages gets a higher priority after society has attained enough investments in health
and education.
b) High-income societies have more staff and funds to enforce compliance with environmental
regulations.
c) Higher income and education empower local communities to enforce tougher environmental
standards.
d) All of the above answers are true.
17. The Environmental Kuznet’s Curve can be interpreted as a transition from an agrarian sector to
urban industrialization. Along with this transition, we see a growth in income inequality as a low-
income agriculture society evolves into a high-income urban society. This will lead to:
a) Urbanization.
b) Corruption and lack of democracy.
c) Lack of information/education.
d) All answers above are correct.
21. Why does the industry from developed countries relocate to the developing countries?
a) China.
b) Russia.
c) Japan.
d) Mongolia.
23. Why is urbanization increasing in the developing world?
1. b 2. a 3. d 4. a 5. c 6. b
7. c 8. c 9. d 10. b 11. b 12. d
13. c 14. c 15. b 16. d 17. b 18. c
19. c 20. d 21. a 22. a 23. d 24. d
a) Gordon Tullock.
b) John Maynard Keynes.
c) Joseph E. Stiglitz.
d) Adam Smith.
2. If government finds an endangered species living on your property, then:
a) Private goods.
b) Public goods.
c) Property rights.
d) State-property regimes.
5. What is a common-property regime?
a) Asymmetric Information.
b) Monopolies.
c) Negative Externality.
d) Open access property problem.
8. Which answer below is an example of a positive externality?
a) Public immunizations.
b) Increase of corporate taxes.
c) Issuing extra permits for pollution.
d) All answers above are correct.
9. Which answer below is not a market failure?
a) Asymmetric Information.
b) Monopolies.
c) Externalities.
d) Economies of scale.
10. What is it when fishermen catch too many fish, which causes the fish populations to decrease
to such a level that hurts future fish catching?
a) Asymmetric Information.
b) Monopolies.
c) Negative Externality.
d) Open access Property.
11. How can government correct the problem with open access property, like over fishing?
a) Public goods.
b) Product is both rival and excludable.
c) Presence of externalities.
d) Asymmetric information.
14. Market failure can occur when:
a) Rival goods.
b) Nonrival goods.
c) Public goods.
d) Nonexclusive goods.
18. A situation in which a buyer and a seller possess different information about a transaction is
called:
a) Adverse selection.
b) Asymmetric information.
c) Market signaling.
d) Moral hazard.
19. What is the problem of prohibiting or outlawing pollution?
a) Pollution prohibition.
b) The public protests.
c) The original country offers tax breaks and subsidies.
d) Escape earthquakes and other natural disasters.
21. What is a leakage?
a) Government uses laws and regulations that dictate the standards and/or technology used to
reduce pollution.
b) Disputing parties work out a private agreement that is efficient for society.
c) The government uses price or quantity mechanisms to internalize the externalities.
d) The manufacturing firms flee to developing countries with weak environmental laws.
22. What is the problem of pollution lawsuits?
a) Protocols.
b) Lawsuits.
c) Command-and-control regulations.
d) Open access property.
24. Why do courts usually fail to come up with comprehensive plans?
a) Ambient Standards.
b) Emission standards.
c) Technology standards.
d) Grandfathering of regulations.
28. Please define the Emission standards for command-and-control regulations:
a) Pigouvian Taxes.
b) Command-and-control regulations (CAC).
c) Subsidy.
d) Lawsuits.
32. Which answer is NOT a command-and-control regulations standard?
a) Ambient Standards
b) Emission standards
c) Technology standards
d) Quality standard.
33. Which answer is a problem of command and control regulations?
a) Firms with high marginal abatement costs buy permits, and pollute more.
b) Firms with low marginal abatement costs sell permits, and pollute less.
c) The permit creates a market price of pollution.
d) Government sets the minimum pollution level.
42. Permits create a market price for pollution and therefore can be traded between firms. In order
for these permits to have low transaction costs, they must be:
1. d 2. d 3. a 4. c 5. d 6. a
7. c 8. a 9. d 10. d 11. d 12. a
13. b 14. d 15. c 16. b 17. a 18. b
19. c 20. a 21. d 22. d 23. b 24. a
25. c 26. d 27. a 28. b 29. d 30. a
31. b 32. d 33. d 34. a 35. c 36. d
37. b 38. a 39. a 40. d 41. d 42. b
Lecture 4 - Pollution
1. Which of the ideas below indicates the level of uncertainty associated with pollution and its
damage to the environment from now and into the future?
a) The world is too complex and we do not know where the tipping points.
b) Damages may be barely noticeable for low levels, but become severe above some uncertain
threshold.
c) Humans should not go beyond the tipping points and exacerbate environmental damage.
d) All of the answers above are correct.
7. Why are local governments reluctant to increase environmental standards and regulations?
a) California.
b) Ohio.
c) Illinois.
d) Texas.
10. Which theory or rule claims that environmental regulations spur innovation and new
technologies, thus increasing a firm’s competitiveness?
a) Coase theorem.
b) The Precautionary Principle.
c) Porter Hypothesis.
d) Hotelling’s Rule.
11. One can view environmental regulations as a benefit for …
a) society’s health.
b) the environment.
c) innovation of firms and companies.
d) All answers above are correct.
12. The EPA was going to shutdown the Robbins Company, because it discharged too much
polluted water. However, this caused the company’s engineers to develop new methods to purify
water, allowing the company to produce higher quality for a lower cost. Which idea explains this
behavior?
a) Porter Hypothesis.
b) Global warming potential.
c) Coase Theorem.
d) A Pigouvian Price.
13. Why did the pollution permits save an estimated $1 billion over command and control
regulation?
a) Flexible standards made using clean coal, rather than a scrubber, a viable option
b) Deregulation of railroads made it cheaper to transport low-sulfur coal across US
c) Technological innovation that cleaned a plant’s emissions.
d) All answers all are correct.
14. Which location in the atmosphere is ozone considered ”bad” and harmful to a public’s health?
a) Lower atmosphere.
b) Higher atmosphere.
c) Stratosphere.
d) Mesosphere.
15. Since ozone is highly reactive, which metal below will it oxidize?
a) Gold.
b) Copper.
c) Iridium.
d) Platinum.
16. Which governmental policies helped reduce ground-level ozone (O3)?
a) They constructed large smokestacks that carried pollution to the next jurisdiction.
b) They voluntarily created a market permit system to reduce their emissions.
c) They voluntarily installed scrubbers to clean the sulfur out of their emissions.
d) All answers above are correct.
19. What did Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, the Love Canal, and Bhopal, India all have in common?
a) They were all nuclear disasters.
b) The respective companies made significant environmental improvements.
c) They were environmental problems that were quickly fixed.
d) They qualify as technological disasters.
20. Why is the green movement and alternative energy becoming popular with large corporations
in developed countries?
a) The exporting country experiences the environmental damage while the importing country does
not.
b) The importing country experiences the environmental damage while the exporting country does
not.
c) Both the importing and exporting countries suffer from environmental damage.
d) Neither the importing and exporting countries suffer from environmental damage.
27.The Soviet Union and Eastern European countries imposed environmental taxes during the late
1970s and early 1980s, using complicated engineering formulas. Were these taxes successful?
a) Yes.
b) No.
c) At first the taxes were effective, then over time became less effective.
d) At first the taxes were not effective, then over time became more effective.
28. What is the influence of the free trade to the environmental damage?
a) Montreal Protocol.
b) Kyoto Protocol.
c) Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
d) None of the answers are correct.
36. Which government policies can reduce pollution?
1. b 2. b 3. c 4. d 5. c 6. d
7. a 8. b 9. a 10. c 11. d 12. a
13. d 14. a 15. b 16. d 17. c 18. a
19. d 20. d 21. c 22. b 23. d 24. d
25. b 26. a 27. b 28. d 29. d 30. c
31. a 32. b 33. b 34. c 35. b 36. d
a) Greenhouse gases (made by man) are accumulating in the atmosphere, trapping more solar
energy, and causing the world to become warmer through the greenhouse effect.
b) Gases accumulate in the atmosphere; they trap infrared radiation that heats up the earth.
c) One metric ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps a specific amount of the sun’s
radiation.
d) Global warming causes earth to be warmer but something changes that weakens the warming
effect.
2. What is the global warming?
a) Greenhouse gases (made by man) are accumulating in the atmosphere, trapping more solar
energy, and causing the world to become warmer through the greenhouse effect.
b) Gases accumulate in the atmosphere; they trap infrared radiation that heats up the earth.
c) One metric ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps a specific amount of the sun’s
radiation.
d) Global warming causes earth to be warmer but something changes that weakens the warming
effect.
3. What percentage of (dry) air is composed of carbon dioxide?
a) 20.95 %.
b) 78.08 %.
c) 0.93 %.
d) 0.93 %.
4. What is the Global Warming Potential (GWP)?
a) Greenhouse gases (made by man) are accumulating in the atmosphere, trapping more solar
energy, and causing the world to become warmer through the greenhouse effect.
b) Gases accumulate in the atmosphere; they trap infrared radiation that heats up the earth.
c) One metric ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps a specific amount of the sun’s
radiation.
d) Global warming causes earth to be warmer but something changes that weakens the warming
effect.
5. What percentage of greenhouse gases does methane gas contribute?
a) 6%
b) 15%
c) 18%.
d) 28%
6. Which gas below is a greenhouse gas, but does not have a Global Warming Potential?
a) Water vapor.
b) Carbon gas.
c) Nitrogen.
d) Oxygen.
7. What is a positive feedback loop?
a) Greenhouse gases (made by man) are accumulating in the atmosphere, trapping more solar
energy, and causing the world to become warmer through the greenhouse effect.
b) Gases accumulate in the atmosphere; they trap infrared radiation that heats up the earth.
c) One metric ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps a specific amount of the sun’s
radiation.
d) Global warming causes earth to be warmer but something changes that strengthens the
warming effect.
8. What are market incentives to lower greenhouse gas emissions?
a) Health damage and deaths from heat waves and spread of tropical diseases.
b) Loss of agricultural output due to drought and changing climate conditions.
c) Rising sea level increases loss of land area, including beaches and wetlands
d) All answers above are correct.
13. What are the benefits of climate change?
a) USA.
b) Great Britain.
c) Canada.
d) India.
18. Which argument do developing countries use, so they should not have to limit their greenhouse
gas emissions?
a) It will help the developing country to improve and they do not want that.
b) Green technologies and alternative energy sources are not available to developing countries.
c) Developed countries refuse to help developing countries.
d) If the developing country limits their emissions, then they may limit their growth.
19. What are the problems of appealing to people’s civic duty for reducing greenhouse gases?
a) Countries have a variety of laws that allow people to sue that address and fix externalities.
b) Lawsuits are expensive and tend to be slow.
c) Courts develop rules a case-to-case basis.
d) Lawsuits encourage rent-seeking behavior, as lawyers sue to obtain millions in legal fees.
21. What are command-and-control regulations?
a) Regulations require market permits and place a market price on greenhouse gas emission.
b) Regulations place a tax on greenhouse gas emissions.
c) Laws and regulations dictate the standards and technology used to reduce greenhouse gases.
d) Laws allowing the public to sue corporations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
22. When was the Kyoto Protocol adopted?
a) On December 11, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan.
b) On December11, 1997 in Quebec, Canada.
c) On December 11, 1998 in Kyoto, Japan.
d) On November 11, 1998 in Moscow, Russia
23. How many countries signed the Kyoto Protocol?
a) 200
b) 183
c) 111
d) 178
24. Which country signed the Kyoto Protocol, but did not ratify this agreement?
a) United Kingdom
b) China
c) Korea
d) United States.
25. European countries started their European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. What happens if
a company exceeds its greenhouse gas emissions limit?
a) European countries strictly monitor their industries, causing many industries to bankrupt.
b) European countries created too few carbon permits.
c) European countries created too many carbon permits.
d) None of the answers is correct.
Answers:
1. b 2. a 3. d 4. c 5. c 6. a
7. a 8. c 9. c 10. b 11. c 12. d
13. d 14. a 15. d 16. b 17. a 18. d
19. d 20. a 21. c 22. a 23. b 24. d
25. b 26. a 27. c