📚 Learning Guide
Externalities and Their Effects
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A city is considering building a new factory that will produce bicycles. While it promises to create jobs and boost the local economy, nearby residents are concerned about potential air pollution and increased traffic. Which of the following best describes the externalities involved in this situation?

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Choose the Best Answer

A

The factory's job creation is a positive externality, while pollution and traffic congestion are negative externalities.

B

The factory will create a positive externality for the residents, as they will benefit from increased employment opportunities, regardless of pollution.

C

The pollution caused by the factory is a positive externality because it leads to traffic improvements.

D

There are no externalities involved since the factory will only impact the owners and workers directly.

Understanding the Answer

Let's break down why this is correct

Answer

In this situation, the externalities refer to the unintended effects that the new bicycle factory will have on people who are not directly involved in its operations. On one hand, the factory can create positive externalities by providing jobs, which helps the local economy grow and can improve the quality of life for residents. On the other hand, the factory may cause negative externalities, such as air pollution from its operations and increased traffic from workers commuting to and from the site. For example, while some people may benefit from the new jobs, others might suffer from breathing difficulties due to pollution or find it harder to get around because of the extra cars on the road. This shows how the factory's impact goes beyond just its immediate business activities, affecting the wider community in both good and bad ways.

Detailed Explanation

The factory creates jobs, which helps the economy. Other options are incorrect because This answer suggests that the job creation is good enough to ignore pollution; This option wrongly claims pollution is good.

Key Concepts

Externalities
Market Efficiency
Public Goods
Topic

Externalities and Their Effects

Difficulty

medium level question

Cognitive Level

understand

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