Using your own word (do not copy and paste from a website) explain one negative externality and one positive externality that is currently happening in your country. What is your country’s government doing to fix the issues of the negative externality?
One of the well-known negative externalities is pollution, and it became a great issue in China, where environmental pollution goes hand in hand together with economic growth. For example, from 2007 to 2015, China’s GDP increased by 2.6 times while the total amount of industrial exhaust fumes emissions increased by 1.8 times (Zhao et al, 2022). Air pollution can cause several horrible effects and diseases such as lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, respiratory diseases, and many others. Therefore, this country has to combat this negative externality. For example, one of the important plans is to replace coal with natural gas. Also, to deal with this great challenge, the Chinese government created the Outline of the Healthy China 2030 plan which should not only help to improve public health but also find reasons that affect it negatively (Zhao et al, 2022).
An example of a positive externality currently happening in China is an emphasis on education. During the last few years, I could personally see what changes were applied in rural areas: more schools were not only built, but also equipped well with modern computers, new furniture, and other important objects. Once, when I visited a primary school in a village, I was surprised at how good it was. All this is an effort of the government to give people better education, especially in the countryside. As in many other countries, people often seek a better place to live for their families and children, so they try to run away from rural areas and move to bigger cities – the bigger the better. This causes other issues, such as a higher level of unemployment and unqualified workforce. Therefore, China tried to make villages better places, where children can get a good basic education and later join universities and find better jobs.
Word count: 298.
References
Greenlaw, S. A. & Shapiro, D. (2018). Principles of microeconomics, 2e. Open Stax Rice University. Retrieved from https://d3bxy9euw4e147.cloudfront.net/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/Microeconomics2e-OP.pdf
Zhao X., Jiang M., Zhang W. (28 March, 2022). The Impact of Environmental Pollution and Economic Growth on Public Health: evidence from China. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.861157/full