This is every bit in keeping with Ray's service to Oregon. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and was present at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference where the World Bank and the IMF were founded. His most recent article, to be published by the Milken Institute, is about the IMF's role in the current Asian economic crisis. Mikesell hopes his gift will result in more extensive cost-benefit studies of solutions to environmental problems. You could spend so much on one problem that you would not only seriously affect your standard of living but also would have less to spend on some other problem.
Resources are scarce.
You have to allocate what you have among various environmental problems. There are constant tradeoffs.