The Economic Approach to Environmental Policy The Selected Essays of A. Myrick Freeman III

About this book

These papers cover such topics as: the effects of environmental and resources policies on income distribution; the incorporation of distribution effects into environmental policy analysis; the role of economic incentives in environmental policy; the economic valuation of environment changes; and the consideration of risk and uncertainty in economic valuation and policy making. The book also includes papers on the ethical basis of environmental economics and the economic approach to environmental policy.

Contents

Part 1 Multi-objective planning and the distribution of benefits and costs: six federal reclamation projects and the distribution of income; income distribution and planning for public investment; income redistribution and social choice - a pragmatic approach; project design and evaluation with multiple objectives; benefit-cost analysis and multiple objectives - current issues in water resources planning; the distribution of environmental quality; the incident of the costs of controlling automotive air pollution. Part 2 Incentives and pollution control policy: water pollution control, river basin authorities and economic incentives - some current policy issues; residuals charges for pollution control - a policy evaluation; clean rhetoric and dirty water; technology based effluent standards - the US case; depletable externalities and Pigouvian taxation; optimal "Adders" for environmental damage by public utilities. Part 3 Valuing changes in the environment: On the economics of mass demonstration - a case study of the November March on Washington ; air pollution and property values - a methodological comment; on estimating air pollution control benefits from land value studies; congestion, quality deterioration, and heterogeneous tastes; the hedonic price technique and the value of climate as a resource; measuring the welfare values of productivity changes; valuing environmental resources under alternative management regimes; on valuing the services and functions of ecosystems; the benefits of water quality improvements for marine recreation - a review of the empirical evidence; estimating the environmental costs of electricity - an overview and review of the issues. Part 4 Risk and uncertainty: option demand and consumer surplus - further comment; on the sign and size of option value; supply uncertainty, option price and option value; welfare measurement and the benefit-cost analysis of projects affecting risks; the quasi-option value of irreversible development; ex ante and ex post values for changes in risk; indirect methods for valuing changes in environmental risks with non-expected utility preferences. Part 5 Miscellaneous: advocacy and resource allocation decisions in the public sector; quasi-optimal pricing for cost recovery in multiple purpose water resource projects; the ethical basis of the economic view of the environment; economics, incentives and environmental regulation.

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