Abstract:I argue that much current thinking on externalities-at least among "lay political economists" (but even, on occasion, among professional economists)-is saddled with two analytical errors. The first is what I call coextensivism: the conflation of public goods and externalities. The second error is what I call externality profligacy: the conflation of economic and "social" externalities. The principal dangers presented by these two "dogmas on externalities" are that, while in their grips, we are under-disposed t… Show more
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