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Externality

Economics
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A cost or benefit affecting people who were not part of a transaction. Poets use it to reveal consequences pushed onto others.

Detailed Definition
An externality is an effect of production or consumption that falls beyond the buyer and seller, such as polluted air, traffic noise, public learning, or a healthier river. In poetry, it offers a way to trace invisible connections between private comfort and public harm. A speaker may follow smoke from a purchase to a child's lungs, or follow a shared garden's beauty into a neighborhood's daily life, making neglected consequences visible.
Example
Example in poetry:
An externality appears in a poem when a factory earns profit while nearby families breathe polluted air; “The mill counted its coins, while the river carried the unpaid cost downstream” portrays a negative externality; A community garden can create a positive externality by making a neighborhood greener and more pleasant for people who did not pay for it; A poem about traffic can show drivers gaining convenience while pedestrians bear the noise and fumes
Additional Notes
An externality is an unpriced consequence, such as pollution; poetry can give voice to those burdened by others’ choices.
Also Known As
Spillover External Effect
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