16. Free-market Solutions
16.1
Free-Market SolutionsFree-market solutions can minimize cost and rent dissipation of market interventions and regulation.
16.2
Dying for Money?Compensated physician-assisted death could reduce end-of-life health care expenditures and reduce pain and suffering.
16.3
Guilt-free PollutionPaying lower-cost avoiders to reduce pollution could reduce the total cost of pollution control.
16.4
Making Animal Conservation PayPeople will conserve wildlife if they have a financial stake in it.
16.5
Load PricingPeak-load pricing can lower electric bills and increase business profitability by inducing household consumers to shift their consumption from higher-rate peak period to lower-rate slack period.
16.6
Congestion PricingRoad tolls that vary directly with congestion have reduced peak-hour traffic volume in Singapore and Stockholm by forcing commuters to internalize congestion cost.
16.7
Fished Out!By assigning fishing quotas to individual fisherman, Iceland has solved the problem of over-exploitation typically associated with open access to common-pool resources.
16.8
Green TaxTaxing nonrenewable resources instead of labor income would create more jobs and encourage conservation while reducing pollution.
16.9
The Right to Pollute?Pollution credits convert the atmosphere from a commons into private property. They can reduce pollution if the pollution cap is lower than the unrestricted total and lower the costs of reducing pollution if credits can be sold from low-cost avoiders and high-cost avoiders.