Every year, federal, state, and local governments in the U. S. spend tens of billions of dollars to build and maintain roads, enforce traffic laws, put out motor-vehicle fires, lock up motor-vehicle criminals, control motor-vehicle pollution, research new motor fuels and motor-vehicle...

There has been considerable discussion about the extent to which motor-vehicle use in the US is “subsidized,†making petroleum-based motor vehicle use more attractive than other transportation modes. Estimates of these subsidies vary widely, and in many cases can be criticized on...

The U.S. spends a considerable amount of money protecting what it feels are its interests in the Persian Gulf. The exact amount is difficult to estimate, because the Defense budget is itemized not by region or mission, but rather, as shown in Table 15-4, by general function or cost area, such as...

Abstract Air pollution from motor vehicles, electricity-generating plants, industry, and other sources can harm human health, injure crops and forests, damage building materials, and impair visibility. Economists sometimes analyze the social cost of these impacts, in order to illuminate...

The effects of ozone air pollution on the agricultural sector are an important environmental challenge facing policy makers. Most studies of the economic impact of air pollution on agriculture have found that a 25% reduction in ambient ozone would provide benefits of at least $1-2 billion...

Over the past five years, analysts and policymakers have become increasingly interested in the “full social cost†of motor vehicle use. Not surprisingly, there is little agreement about how to estimate the social cost or why, with the result that estimates and interpretations can...

Analyses of the full social cost of motor vehicle use in the US often estimate an “oil import premium†that includes the military cost of defending oil supplies from the Persian Gulf. Estimates of this cost have ranged from essentially zero to upwards of a $1 per gallon (about $0.25...