Economics of the Environment: Theory and Policy

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.