The economics of noise pollution

This thesis investigates the problems posed by the existence of noise pollution with the use of economic concepts. The analysis is conducted at various levels of abstraction and includes the opening up cf some new fields of investigation, as well as tidying up and bringing together some previous work. The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter one introduces the subject and indicates the approach that is going to be taken in the subsequent chapters. Chapter two analyses the consequences for an optimum town of pollution such as noise. The necessary and sufficient conditions for an optimum are obtained and discussed. There are some comparative static results and the question of decentralisation is examined. Finally some simulation results are presented. The work in this chapter is perhaps least specific to noise pollution and would apply to any spatially distributed non-accumulating pollution. Chapter three examines the measurement of noise costs to households and compares two different approaches to the problem. Chapter four discusses the control cf noise levels in the context of the economic analysis cf Externalities and Public Ears, and emphasises some of the difficulties in obtaining optimum noise charges. Chapter five summarises the existing empirical work and adds some new results