Book Summary of Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings by R Dorfman & NS Dorfman (eds.)
Citation:
Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings, R Dorfman & NS Dorfman (eds.), (New York: WW Norton & Company, 1972), 426pp.
This Book Summary written by: Conflict Research Consortium Staff
Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings is divided into five
sections each focused on a particular portion of economics as applied to
environmental problems. The first section will interest those who wish an
economic perspective on environmental problems. This section discusses economic
justifications for pollution and general international environmental
problems.
The second section will be of concern to those who desire an understanding
of how economic theory can be fruitfully applied to environmental
problems. This section offers explanations: of economic theory applied
to a common-property resource, the problem of social costs and
the divergences between social cost and private costs. Further,
the problem of internalizing various externalities are
discussed.
The third section will be useful for those who seek economic reasons and
methods for environmental protection. This section examines ways in
which environmental protection might be achieved by the use of: charges
for pollution, regulation of ownership rights to land and water, and
manipulation of transaction costs and resource allocation. The
potential conflict between property rights and amenity rights is
focused upon. The role of government in environmental protection is
examined and a public decision model is offered.
The fourth section will be of assistance to those who wish to explore the
relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth.
This section offers two possible, non-exclusive, causes of the present
environmental problems: the conflict between economic growth and environmental
protection and a cultural basis.
The final section enumerates the complexities inherent in attempts to
measure the costs and benefits of environmental goods. Specifically,
the difficulties in measuring the benefit of economic growth which
generates air pollution against the cost of human health
and the numerous methods for recreation evaluation are addressed.
Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings offers an economic
perspective on the present environmental problems. In keeping with the economic
focus of the work, it also offers market approaches to the solution of
environmental problems and explores no others.
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