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The labor of nature is paid, not because she does much, but because she does little. In proportion as she becomes niggardly in her gifts, she exacts a greater price for her work. Where she is munificently bene- cent, she always works gratis. 1 David Ricardo This book interprets nature and the environment as a scarce resource. Whereas in the past people lived in a paradise of environmental superabundance, at present environmental goods and services are no longer in ample supply. The environment fulfills many functions for the economy: it serves as a public-c- sumption good, as a provider of natural resources, and as receptacle of waste. These different functions compete with each other. Releasing more pollutants into the environment reduces environmental quality, and a better environmental quality implies that the environment's use as a receptacle of waste has to be restrained. Consequently, environmental disruption and environmental use are by nature allocation problems. This is the basic message of this book.
Sommario
The Problem.- Using the Environment - An Allocation Problem.- Static Allocation Aspect.- Production Theory and Transformation Space.- Optimal Environmental Use.- Environmental Quality as a Public Good.- Property-Rights Approach to the Environmental Problem.- Environmental-Policy Instruments.- Incidence of an Emission Tax.- Policy Instruments.- Policy Instruments and the Casuistics of Pollution.- The Political Economy of Environmental Scarcity.- Environmental Allocation in Space.- Environmental Endowment, Competitiveness and Trade.- Transfrontier Pollution.- Global Environmental Media.- Regional Aspects of Environmental Allocation.- Environmental Allocation in Time and Under Uncertainty.- Long-Term Aspects of Environmental Quality.- Economic Growth, Sustainability, and Environmental Quality.- Risk and Environmental Allocation.
Riassunto
The book interprets nature and the environment as a scarce resource. It offers a theoretical study of the allocation problem and describes different policy approaches to the environmental problem. This new edition contains updated data and additional topics. The entire spectrum of the allocation issue is studied: the use of the environment in a static context, international and trade aspects of environmental allocation, regional dimensions, global environmental media, and environmental use over time and under uncertainty. The book incorporates a variety of economic approaches, including neoclassical analysis, the public-goods approach, benefit-cost analysis, and property-rights ideas. Also covered are economic policy and public-finance reasoning, international trade theory, regional science, optimization theory, and risk analysis. The different aspects of environmental allocation are studied in the context of a single model that is used through the book.
