Locational Dimensions of Utility for Transboundary Pollutants: an Empirical Investigation of Common Assumptions

Theoretical models of trans-boundary pollutants impose simplifying restrictions on the locational or spatial dimensions of utility, or both. This includes assumptions that citizens in each country care only about domestic environmental damages or that pollution is a pure public bad for which the location of damages is irrelevant to welfare impacts. This article empirically examines the applicability of such assumptions for a case study of marine plastic pollution. The data are from mirror-image, cross-country discrete choice experiments in the United Kingdom and the United States. Results suggest that common simplifying assumptions in the theoretical literature have questionable applicability to transboundary pollutants such as marine plastics.