Economics and the Environment, 8th Edition

Economics and the Environment, 8th Edition

by Eban S. Goodstein, Stephen Polasky
Released September 2017
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119369868

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Book description

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Climate change has morphed from an environmental problem into a challenge to civilization itself. As CO2 levels have continued to rise, the 8th Edition of this book is now more relevant than ever. Retaining the approach of the original edition, the newest iteration features global warming as the framing example for a comprehensive look at environmental economics. Pedagogical clarity is ensured by the book’s central focus on four highly-focused questions: How much pollution is too much? Is the government up to the job? How can we do better? How can we resolve global issues? The text also continues with a strong focus on natural resources economics and ecosystem services. Updates to the book are included to address the very latest concerns, standards, and legislation related to environmental issues, providing students with a comprehensive look at this important topic while maintaining an accessible approach that makes the material engaging and highly relevant.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Preface
  4. Introduction
    1. CHAPTER 1: Four Economic Questions About Climate Change
      1. 1.0 Introduction
      2. 1.1 Four Questions
      3. 1.2 How Much Pollution Is Too Much?
      4. 1.3 Is Government Up to the Job?
      5. 1.4 How Can We Do Better?
      6. 1.5 Can We Resolve Global Issues?
      7. 1.6 Summary
  5. PART I: How Much Pollution Is Too Much?
    1. CHAPTER 2: Ethics and Economics
      1. 2.0 Introduction
      2. 2.1 Utility and Utilitarianism
      3. 2.2 Social Welfare
      4. 2.3 Summary
    2. CHAPTER 3: Pollution and Resource Degradation as Externalities
      1. 3.0 Introduction
      2. 3.1 The Open Access Problem
      3. 3.2 The Public Goods Problem
      4. 3.3 Is Sustainable Business a Solution?
      5. 3.4 Summary
    3. CHAPTER 4: The Efficiency Standard
      1. 4.0 Introduction
      2. 4.1 Efficiency Defined
      3. 4.2 Efficient Pollution Levels
      4. 4.3 Marginals and Totals
      5. 4.4 The Coase Theorem Introduced
      6. 4.5 Air Pollution Control in Baltimore: Calculating the Efficient Standard
      7. 4.6 The Ethical Basis of the Efficiency Standard
      8. 4.7 Real-World Benefit– Cost Analysis
      9. 4.8 Summary
    4. CHAPTER 5: Measuring the Benefits of Environmental Protection
      1. 5.0 Introduction
      2. 5.1 Use, Option, and Existence Value: Types of Nonmarket Benefits
      3. 5.2 Consumer Surplus, WTP, and WTA: Measuring Benefits
      4. 5.3 Risk: Assessment and Perception
      5. 5.4 Measuring Benefits I: Contingent Valuation
      6. 5.5 Measuring Benefits II: Travel Cost
      7. 5.6 Measuring Benefits III: Hedonic Regression
      8. 5.7 The Value of Human Life
      9. 5.8 Summary
      10. APPENDIX 5A: WTA and WTP Redux
      11. 5A.1: An Indifference Curve Analysis
      12. 5A.2: Prospect Theory or Substitutability?
    5. CHAPTER 6: Measuring the Costs of Environmental Protection
      1. 6.0 Introduction
      2. 6.1 Engineering Costs
      3. 6.2 Productivity Impacts of Regulation
      4. 6.3 Employment Impacts of Regulation
      5. 6.4 General Equilibrium Effects and the Double Dividend
      6. 6.5 A Final Look at Benefit– Cost Analysis
      7. 6.6 Summary
    6. CHAPTER 7: The Safety Standard
      1. 7.0 Introduction
      2. 7.1 Defining the Right to Safety
      3. 7.2 The Safety Standard: Inefficient
      4. 7.3 The Safety Standard: Not Cost-Effective
      5. 7.4 The Safety Standard: Environmental Justice or Regressive Impact?
      6. 7.5 Siting Hazardous Waste Facilities: Safety versus Efficiency
      7. 7.6 Summary
    7. CHAPTER 8: The Sustainability Standard
      1. 8.0 Introduction
      2. 8.1 Sustainability: Neoclassical and Ecological Approaches
      3. 8.2 Future Benefits, Costs, and Discounting
      4. 8.3 An Example of Discounting: Light Bulbs
      5. 8.4 Savings, Investment, and Market Interest Rates
      6. 8.5 The Social Discount Rate and Dynamic Efficiency
      7. 8.6 Discounting Climate Change
      8. 8.7 Ecological Economics, Strong Sustainability, and the Precautionary Principle
      9. 8.8 Strong Sustainability in Practice: Endangered Species, EIS, and Reach
      10. 8.9 Summary
    8. CHAPTER 9: Measuring Sustainability
      1. 9.0 Introduction
      2. 9.1 Malthus and Ecological Economics
      3. 9.2 Modern Debates: Limits to Growth and Planetary Boundaries
      4. 9.3 Measuring Strong Sustainability: Impacts and Footprints
      5. 9.4 Measuring Weak Sustainability: Net National Welfare and Inclusive Wealth
      6. 9.5 Natural Capital Depreciation
      7. 9.6 Are We Achieving Sustainability?
      8. 9.7 Discounting, Sustainability, and Investing for the Future
      9. 9.8 The Ecological–Neoclassical Debate in Context
      10. 9.9 Summary
    9. CHAPTER 10: Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services
      1. 10.0 Introduction
      2. 10.1 Nonrenewable Resources and the Hotelling Model
      3. 10.2 Testing the Nonrenewable Resource Model
      4. 10.3 The Roller Coaster Ride of Oil Prices
      5. 10.4 Peak Oil?
      6. 10.5 Renewable Resources
      7. 10.6 Renewable Resource Policy: Fisheries and Endangered Species
      8. 10.7 Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital
      9. 10.8 Summary
    10. CHAPTER 11: Is More Really Better? Consumption, Welfare, and Behavior
      1. 11.0 Introduction
      2. 11.1 Money and Happiness
      3. 11.2 Social Norms and the Rat Race
      4. 11.3 Positional Goods and Consumption Externalities
      5. 11.4 Welfare with Social Consumption
      6. 11.5 Overconsumption Policy Solutions
      7. 11.6 Behavioral Economics and Behavior Change
      8. 11.7 Summary
  6. PART II: Is Government Up to the Job?
    1. CHAPTER 12: The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation
      1. 12.0 Introduction
      2. 12.1 The Process of Environmental Regulation
      3. 12.2 Regulation under Imperfect Information
      4. 12.3 Bureaucratic Discretion and Political Influence
      5. 12.4 Who Wins the Influence Game?
      6. 12.5 Political Reform of Regulation
      7. 12.6 Better Information, More Democracy
      8. 12.7 Summary
    2. CHAPTER 13: An Overview of Environmental Legislation
      1. 13.0 Introduction
      2. 13.1 Cleaning the Air
      3. 13.2 The Clean Air Act and Climate Change
      4. 13.3 Fishable and Swimmable Waters
      5. 13.4 Hazardous Waste Disposal on Land
      6. 13.5 Chemicals and Pesticides
      7. 13.6 Endangered Species Protection
      8. 13.7 Summary
    3. CHAPTER 14: The Regulatory Record: Achievements and Obstacles
      1. 14.0 Introduction
      2. 14.1 Accomplishments of Environmental Regulation
      3. 14.2 Monitoring and Enforcement: Political Constraints
      4. 14.3 The Appeal of Incentive-Based Regulation
      5. 14.4 Beyond Regulation? Promoting Clean Technology
      6. 14.5 Summary
  7. PART III: How Can We Do Better?
    1. CHAPTER 15: Incentive-Based Regulation: Theory
      1. 15.0 Introduction
      2. 15.1 The Cost-Effectiveness Rule
      3. 15.2 IB Regulation and Cost-Effectiveness
      4. 15.3 IB Regulation and Technological Progress
      5. 15.4 Potential Problems with IB Regulation
      6. 15.5 Summary
      7. APPENDIX 15A: Imperfect Regulation in an Uncertain World
      8. 15A.0: Minimizing the Costs of Being Wrong
      9. 15A.1 An Application to Greenhouse Gas Emissions
      10. 15A.2 Summary
      11. APPENDIX 15B: Incentive-Compatible Regulation
      12. 15B.0 Incentives to Lie
      13. 15B.1 Incentives to Tell the Truth
      14. 15B.2 Summary
    2. CHAPTER 16: Incentive-Based Regulation: Practice
      1. 16.0 Introduction
      2. 16.1 Lead and Chlorofluorocarbons
      3. 16.2 Trading Urban Air Pollutants
      4. 16.3 Marketable Permits and Acid Rain
      5. 16.4 Carbon Trading in the Northeast and California
      6. 16.5 Two Failed U.S. Efforts: Mercury and Carbon
      7. 16.6 The European Emissions Trading System
      8. 16.7 Pollution Taxes and Their Relatives
      9. 16.8 Summary
    3. CHAPTER 17: Promoting Clean Technology: Theory
      1. 17.0 Introduction
      2. 17.1 Path Dependence and Clean Technology
      3. 17.2 Clean Technology Defined
      4. 17.3 If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
      5. 17.4 Picking the Winning Path
      6. 17.5 Promoting Early-Stage Clean Technologies
      7. 17.6 Promoting Late-Stage Clean Technologies
      8. 17.7 Clean Technology: Two Case Studies
      9. 17.8 Summary
    4. CHAPTER 18: Energy Policy and the Future
      1. 18.0 Introduction
      2. 18.1 Technology Options: Electricity and Heat
      3. 18.2 Policy Options: Electricity and Heat
      4. 18.3 Technology Options: Transport
      5. 18.4 Policy Options: Transport
      6. 18.5 Summary
  8. PART IV: How Can We Solve Global Challenges?
    1. CHAPTER 19: Poverty, Population, and the Environment
      1. 19.0 Introduction
      2. 19.1 Poverty and the Environment
      3. 19.2 The Population Picture in Perspective
      4. 19.3 An Economic Approach to Family Size
      5. 19.4 Controlling Population Growth
      6. 19.5 Consumption and the Global Environment
      7. 19.6 Envisioning a Sustainable Future
      8. 19.7 Summary
    2. CHAPTER 20: Environmental Policy in Low-Income Countries
      1. 20.0 Introduction
      2. 20.1 The Political Economy of Sustainable Development
      3. 20.2 Ending Environmentally Damaging Subsidies
      4. 20.3 Establishing and Enforcing Property Rights
      5. 20.4 Regulatory Approaches
      6. 20.5 Sustainable Technology: Development and Transfer
      7. 20.6 Resource Conservation and Debt Relief
      8. 20.7 Trade and the Environment
      9. 20.8 Summary
    3. CHAPTER 21: The Economics of Global Agreements
      1. 21.0 Introduction
      2. 21.1 Agreements as Public Goods
      3. 21.2 Monitoring and Enforcement
      4. 21.3 The Ozone Layer and Biodiversity
      5. 21.4 Stopping Global Warming: Theory
      6. 21.5 Stopping Global Warming: Reality
      7. 21.6 Summary
  9. Selected Web Sites for Environmental and Natural Resource Economists
  10. Author Index
  11. Subject Index
  12. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Economics and the Environment, 8th Edition
  • Author(s): Eban S. Goodstein, Stephen Polasky
  • Release date: September 2017
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119369868