The Economics of Non-Market Goods and Resources

The last decade has seen free market economies rise to a position of almost complete dominance of the world economic order. Yet at the same time this dominance has thrown into ever sharper relief the importance to sustainable economic growth of those goods and resources which lie beyond the immediate remit of the market; items which are not directly incorporated within the pricing system which is the hallmark of a marketed good, yet on whose correct valuation and management the market depends - non-market goods such as those provided by the environment or via public expenditure. This broad category includes a diversity of goods ranging from open-access wilderness area recreation to health and safety improvements and across resources as different as the ozone layer and clean water. These are the goods and resources which determine so much of the quality of life and upon which the sustainable continuance not only of the market system but life itself depends.
Concerns regarding the manner in which non-market goods are incorporated within economic decisionmaking form the basic rationale for this new series of books from Springer. The series combines and contrasts perspectives from environmental, ecological and resource economics to address two themes; the first examining the ways in which economists assess the value of non-market goods; the second looking at approaches to the sustainable use and management of such goods.