Pigou... and My Mice

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We have been thinking of shutting down our Pennsylvania home for the winter, to save on heat. But there is a problem.

Haven't the mice that live there moved in based on their having formed the expectation that I would continue to provide heat? Isn't my shutting down a negative externality for them? Perhaps the solution is to place a Pigouvian tax on me for shutting down, and employ the proceeds to help the mice relocate?

(The answer to these questions has larger ramifications: Bob Murphy also wants to tax me because of negative externalities I have created, and the mouse case probably would act as a precedent.)

Comments

  1. Bob Murphy12:36 AM

    You're such a statist. Clearly you and the mice can reach a Pareto optimal agreement.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel4:48 PM

    The most important factor in thinking about these questions is standing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. gcallah6:54 PM

    My mice were definitely standing in order to get those seeds down inside the toilet paper tube.

    ReplyDelete

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