A

Abstract

abatement cost. The cost of abating a nuisance such as pollution or congestion. In terms of pollution the cost curve will typically slope upwards at an increasing rate as pollution is progressively reduced. This is because it is usually comparatively cheap to ‘clean up’ some part of a polluted environment but extremely expensive to remove the last units of pollution. An example would be noise where engines can be muffled thus reducing noise by a noticeable amount. Further reductions in noise, might, however, require expensive engine redesign or wholesale changes in road structures, locations etc.