Benefits and Costs of the Informal Sector The Case of Brick Kilns in Bangladesh英文文献资料.docVIP

Journal of Environmental Protection, 2012, 3, 476-484 /10.4236/jep.2012.36058 Published Online June 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep) Benefits and Costs of the Informal Sector: The Case of Brick Kilns in Bangladesh Lelia Croitoru , Maria Sarraf * World Bank, Washington DC, USA. * Email: lcroitoru@ Received March 29 , 2012; revised April 23 , 2012; accepted May 24 , 2012 th rd th ABSTRACT In developing countries, the informal sector—brick kilns, leather tanning, food processing factories—is often highly polluting, causing countless deaths and illnesses. This paper presents the case of brick kilns in Dhaka, one of the most polluted cities in Asia. Five months per year, brick kilns are the city’s main source of fine particulate pollution, ac- counting for 38 percent of total fine particulate mass. The paper values the impacts of existing and alternative brick kiln technologies in Dhaka city. Through a Cost-Benefit Analysis, it estimates the net returns for the entrepreneur, and the social costs, such as health impacts from air pollution and damages due to carbon emissions from kilns. It shows that cleaner technologies are more attractive than traditional technologies both from the private and social perspective, and provides concrete recommendations for a cleaner brick sector in Bangladesh. Keywords: Cost-Benefit Analysis; Air Pollution 1. Introduction 3 percent over the next decade [6]. Despite this importance, the vast majority of kilns use outdated, energy intensive technologies that are highly polluting. About 530 brick kilns are clustered north of The informal sector—small-scale, unlicensed and virtu- ally unregulated firms—is important for the economies of developing countries, accounting for 50 to 80 percent of employment and 20 to 40 percent of output [1]. In India, for e