The most recent issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives features a three-article symposium on the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. (Though that's an iffy anniversary: the CWA was passed in 1972, so it's only 50 with rounding, and the CAA was originally passed in 1963, though the 1970 amendments contained much of the most important stuff.)
In the first article, Janet Currie and Reed Walker provide "a reflection on the 50-year anniversary of the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency, describing what economic research says about the ways in which the Clean Air Act has shaped our society—in terms of costs, benefits, and important distributional concerns."
In the second article, Richard Schmalensee and Robert Stavins discuss the evolution of the CAA over time: "We trace and assess the historical evolution of the Environmental Protection Agency's policy instrument use, with particular focus on the increased use of market-based policy instruments, beginning in the 1970s and culminating in the 1990s."
In the third article, David Keiser and Joseph Shapiro study the CWA and the Safe Drinking Water Act. They summarize four main conclusions: "First, water pollution has fallen since these laws were passed, in part due to their interventions. Second, investments made under these laws could be more cost effective. Third, most recent studies estimate benefits of cleaning up pollution in rivers and lakes that are less than the costs ... Fourth, economic research and teaching on water pollution are relatively uncommon."
