Later Abatement,Faster Abatement: Evidence and Explanations From the Global Phaseout of Leaded Gasoline

Abstract

Some nations took decades to eliminate lead from gasoline. Others took only a few months. Still others are nowhere near completion. Although existing literature has identified factors that speed or impede abatement, it has not addressed international differences in abatement times. This article identifies, for lead phaseout, three important aspects of those international differences. First, later abatement implies faster abatement. Nations that started relatively late required relatively little time to eliminate lead. Second, the completion of "giant steps" explains much of the late abaters' speed. Late abaters have accelerated phaseout by making at least one very large reduction in a 2-year period. Third, accrued wisdom probably explains the giant steps and the later-faster pattern. Evidence suggests that late abaters learned important abatement-accelerating lessons from their predecessors.