ABSTRACT
The political institutions of the South Coast Air Basin have attempted to deal effectively with the smog issue. Southern California is famous for air pollution. Like the vast majority of environmental issues to emerge since World War II, the political economy of smog in Southern California features technical discovery, policy innovation and institutional change. The institutions of greatest interest in this study are the public ones, and particularly local regulatory agencies, which have nominally dominated the political economy of smog in Southern California. A convenient, if vague way to refer to these concerns explanation and reform is to say that political economists are concerned with the rules of the game. In criticizing mainstream political economic theories of regulation, Victor Goldberg puts the case succinctly. The fundamental principle of economics is that people will pursue their own self-interest within a given institutional framework.
