The economic of the environment
By: Peter Berck & Gloria Helfand
Contributors: Helfand, Gloria
Publisher: PHI Learning Private Ltd.
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New Delhi
Language: eng
Number of pages: 507
ISBN-13: 9788120343689
Subjects: Consumer theory; Environmental protection; Why firms pollute; Final applications
Notes: The first word that comes to many peoples minds when they hear the word 'economics' is money. The environment conjures visions of majestic landscapes, not the commercial system. Yet environment and economics are inextricably linked, primarily through the concept of scarcity. In economics, things have value because they are limited in availability. Environmental resources, from clean air to fish stocks, are damaged by economic exploitation, scarcity is the underlying theme of both economics and environmental studies. # This book explains how both markets and market failures affect the environment. Environmental economics is a powerful lens through which to view both economics and environmental issues. This books goal is to explain how tomeasure the value of environmental goods; how to use these measurements to weigh environmental costs market failures. For example, if gasoline prices accounted for the environmetnal harm of driving, welfare would improve. Students of both ecoonomics and environmental science will benefit from understanding these relationships.

This text is written with an eye primarily to students who have already taken a principles of economics class. Students withot a principles class may nevertheless find the text accessible with some extra attention in some of the early chapetrs. Students who are taking introductory economics in an agricultural or environmental program are likely to apreciate seeing economic examples in contexts directly relevant to their interests. # This text includes all of the graphical economic tools necessary to understand the application of microeconomic principles to environmental problems. For instance, technology-based effluent standards are a kley element in the U.S. clean water act. We explain them with isoquants and show graphically the difference between standards and price-based measures, Grandfathering, which permitted polluting power plants to operate 40 years after the U.S. Clean air act was passed, motivates out discussion of long-run market equilibria. Readers of this text will, we hope, appreciate the breadth and richness of the applications of economics tools, as well as the implications of market behaviors for our world.

Includes index.