Harnessing Market Forces to Protect Our Environment Vol. Economics is an advanced form of brain damage. So proclaimed celebrated environmental leader David Brower a few years ago in a conversation with EDF senior economist Dr. Zach Willey.
Economic incentives yield more pollution reduction per dollar than penalties or subsidies.
Perhaps a tad overstated, Brower's comment nevertheless reflects a perspective widely shared among environmental activists. Instead it focuses on seven sets of problems and attempts to apply economic criteria to help address each set on its own terms. EDF, for one, has high praise for the work of the project's sponsors and its staff director, Professor Robert Stavins of the Kennedy School at Harvard and a former EDF staff member. So strong, in fact, is EDF's support for the project's economic approach that several of our staff, including the author of this article, participated in its drafting. The report recognizes that both public and private spending for pollution cleanup and resource preservation will necessarily be constrained in a time of severe budget deficits and increasing international competitiveness.