Free Market Environmentalism - Hardcover

Anderson, Terry L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0367003910 ISBN 13: 9780367003913

Publisher: Routledge, 2019

Synopsis

Although there is in the United States a clear national consensus supporting the protection of the environment, advocates often profoundly disagree about the policies best designed to achieve this end. The traditional answer has been that government must intervene, through legislation and regulation of behavior, to preserve environmental values. This book takes a different approach, examining the prospects (and pitfalls) for improving natural resource allocation and environmental quality through market processes. The authors demonstrate that governmental policies often exacerbate environmental problems because of inadequate incentives and information. A property rights approach that focuses on the costs of operating markets as well as governments lays the framework for thinking about problems ranging from the American Frontier to global warming. Property rights solutions that encourage market processes are proposed for public land management, outdoor recreation, water quantity and quality, and ocean fisheries. The final chapter tackles the "tougher problems" of global warming and acid rain. Free Market Environmentalism applies the economic way of thinking to environmental problems of growing importance. It will be appropriate for environmental economic courses, but an economics background is not a prerequisite for understanding this nontechnical, innovative approach to natural resource management.

About this title

About the Author

Terry L. Anderson is Executive Director of the Political Economy Research Center (PERC), in Bozeman, Montana and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Donald R. Leal is a Senior Associate at PERC, editor or author of three books, and contributing author to six books that cover various aspects of environmental policy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0367003910
• ISBN 13: 9780367003913
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208