ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the economics of automobile emissions. Attempts to control emissions began in the United States, Japan and northern Europe around 1970, amid growing concerns about unhealthy air. Motor vehicle emissions of both conventional and global pollutants depend on a great many things. Small and Kazimi are able to draw some interesting conclusions even with the high degree of uncertainty surrounding many of the estimates. The primary focus of environmental policies to reduce conventional pollutants from transportation sources has been to force manufacturers to build and sell cleaner vehicles by setting successively stricter national new car standards. Multiple policy instruments are also examined. Because of the interrelatedness of the externalities, it is very unlikely that the optimum policy is to set each instrument at the level of its own marginal damage.
