ch 10: concepts for review

Question 1

The ability of a country to absorb foreign private or public financial assistance (to use the funds in a productive manner); also, the capacity of an ecosystem to assimilate potential pollutants - for example, the forests of the earth have a limited capacity to absorb additional CO2 produced as a byproduct of the burning of fossil fuels.

Answer 1

Absorptive capacity

Question 2

The variety of life forms within an ecosystem.

Answer 2

Biodiversity

Question 3

Any combustible organic matter that may be used as fuel, such as firewood, dung, or agricultural residues.

Answer 3

Biomass fuels

Question 4

Technologies that by design produce less waste and use resources more efficiently.

Answer 4

Clean technologies

Question 5

long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns

Answer 5

Climate change

Question 6

A resource that is publicly owned and allocated under a system of unrestricted access.

Answer 6

Common property resource

Question 7

Excess utility over price derived by consumers because of negative sloping demand curve; measured as triangular area under demand curve above price line.

Answer 7

Consumer surplus

Question 8

The exchange of foreign debt held by an organization for a larger quantity of domestic debt that is used to finance the preservation of a natural resource or environment in the debtor country.

Answer 8

Debt-for-nature swap

Question 9

The clearing of forested land.

Answer 9

Deforestation

Question 10

Deforestation is generally divided into two broad categories, ________________________, which involves the clearing of dense rain forests in regions with high levels of precipitation, usually for agricultural purposes, and _________________________, which occurs in areas with less precipitation, where most trees are cut for firewood.

Answer 10

Deforestation is generally divided into two broad categories, tropical deforestation, which involves the clearing of dense rain forests in regions with high levels of precipitation, usually for agricultural purposes, and dry forest clearing, which occurs in areas with less precipitation, where most trees are cut for firewood.

Question 11

The transformation of a region into dry barren land with little or no capacity to sustain life without an artificial source of water.

Answer 11

Desertification

Question 12

The incorporation of environmental benefits and costs into the quantitative analysis of economic activities.

Answer 12

Environmental accounting

Question 13

The portion of a country’s overall capital assets that directly relate to the environment - forests, soil quality and rangeland.

Answer 13

Environmental capital

Question 14

is a hypothesized relationship between various indicators of environmental degradation and per capita income

Answer 14

Environmental Kuznets curve

Question 15

Any benefit or cost borne by an individual that is a direct consequence of another’s behavior and for which there is no compensation.

Answer 15

Externality

Question 16

situation in which people secure benefits that someone else pays for.

Answer 16

Free-rider problem

Question 17

Goods (and bads) whose benefits (or costs) reach across national borders, generations, and population groups. Ozone depletion and greenhouse gas emissions are examples.

Answer 17

Global public good

Question 18

Theory that world climate is slowly warming as a result of both MDC and LDC industrial and agricultural activities.

Answer 18

Global warming

Question 19

Gases that trap heat within the earth’s atmosphere and can thus contribute to global warming.

Answer 19

Greenhouse gases

Question 20

Process whereby external environmental costs are borne by the producers or consumers who generate them, usually through the imposition of pollution or consumption taxes.

Answer 20

Internalization

Question 21

The addition to total cost incurred by the producer as a result of varying output by one more unit.

Answer 21

Marginal cost

Question 22

The benefit derived from the last unit of a good minus its cost.

Answer 22

Marginal net benefit

Question 23

Tax levied on quantity of pollutants released into the physical environment.

Answer 23

Pollution tax

Question 24

The discounted value at the present time of a sum of money to be received in the future.

Answer 24

Present value

Question 25

The direct monetary outlays or costs of an individual economic unit; the private costs of a firm are the direct outlays on fixed and variable inputs of production.

Answer 25

Private costs

Question 26

Excess of total revenue over total costs (profits); also referred to as scarcity rent.

Answer 26

Producer surplus

Question 27

Legal titles given to landowners enabling them freely to buy and sell their plots, and other rights to use, gain income from, or sell property.

Answer 27

Property rights

Question 28

An entity that imposes costs on individuals.

Answer 28

Public bad

Question 29

An entity that provides benefits to all individuals simultaneously and whose enjoyment by one person is in no way diminished by that of another.

Answer 29

Public good

Question 29

The premium or additional rent charged for the use of a resource or good that is in fixed or limited supply

Answer 29

Scarcity rent

Question 30

The cost of an economic decision, whether private or public, to society as a whole.

Answer 30

Social cost

Question 31

Loss of valuable top soils resulting from deforestation and consequent flooding of productive farm lands

Answer 31

Soil erosion

Question 32

Pattern of development that permits future generations to live at least as well as the current generation.

Answer 32

Sustainable development

Question 33

s a measure of economic welfare that accounts for the depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation. It adjusts the traditional Net National Income by incorporating the costs associated with environmental damage and the consumption of non-renewable resources.

Answer 33

Sustainable net national income (NNI*)

Question 34

An environmental accounting measure of the total annual income that can be consumed without diminishing the overall capital assets of a nation (including environmental capital).

Answer 34

Sustainable National Income

Question 35

frequently involves the loss of topsoil, which leads to the permanent loss of cultivability.

Answer 35

Desertification

Question 36

are internalized when adjustments are made such that each individual bears all the costs and benefits of his or her actions.

Answer 36

Externalities

Question 37

Where there exist external diseconomies of production (e.g., pollution) or consumption (alcoholism), social costs will normally exceed private costs, and decisions based solely on private calculations will lead to misallocation of resources

Answer 37

social cost