Price, Principle, and the Environment

Description

Demonstrating the contribution of economics to environmental policy, Mark Sagoff argues that economics is helpful in designing institutions and processes through which people can settle environmental disputes. However, Sagoff also reveals that economic analysis fails completely when it attempts to attach value to environmental goods. He concludes that environmental policy responds to principles best identified and applied through political processes in this work geared to environmentalists as well as philosophers.

Mark Sagoff is Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park.

'If it is the job of philosophers to keep everyone else intellectually honest, Mark Sagoff is doing his job for environmental economists with persuasive logic and graceful writing. There are very few members of our profession who will be able to read this without feelings of embarrassment over how easily they have fallen into the traps and fallacies revealed in Sagoff's analysis. But even as they are chastened they will be entertained rather than lectured to. This is, in fact, a book that ought to be required reading in graduate school, before the socialization process has become nearly irreversible.' Clifford Russell, Vanderbilt University 'Price, Principle, and the Environment offers a critique of environmental economics that is suitable for students and professors in economics, environmental studies, science, and planning, as well as for the informed reader. ... Price, Principle, and the Environment is well written and a valuable contribution to further discussions in economics for environmental policy use.' Environment 'Sagoff writes well and the book is full of interesting anecdotes and case studies ... There is much of interest in this book ...' Economics and Philosophy