Cost–benefit analysis of enforcing installation of particulate matter elimination devices on diesel trucks in Japan
説明
In 2003, Japanese metropolitan municipalities in the Tokyo region introduced a unique regulation, called “operational regulation”, to control air pollution from automobiles. The regulation requires the owners of old fume-spewing trucks and buses to install diesel particulate filters (DPFs) to eliminate particulate matter (PM) emissions. Regulated vehicles without DPFs are prohibited from running in the municipalities. However, there was no policy evaluation conducted before the legislation was introduced. This study constitutes a cost–benefit analysis of the regulation to determine whether it is a valid policy for obtaining cleaner air. The benefit is regarded as reduced health damage achieved by mitigating emissions. The cost is the additional expenditure by vehicle owners to comply with the regulation. As a result, the total cost was 36.1 billion yen for a benefit of 264 billion yen. It is concluded that the operational regulation is a valid policy against air pollution because the net benefit is positive. In addition, this result implies that the complementary policy of replacing old vehicles with new cleaner vehicles is important and effective for further improving social welfare.
収録刊行物
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- Environmental Economics and Policy Studies
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Environmental Economics and Policy Studies 13 1-19, 2011-01-01
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
