Environmental Law & Economics: Economics, environmentalism and price system

Radovan Kazda
Environmental Policy Analyst
Conservative Institute of M. R. Stefanik
radovankazda[at]institute.sk

Friday, June 20, 2008

Economics, environmentalism and price system

Arnold Kling, Econlog.Econlib.org (link)
"Economics and environmentalism both value efficiency and decry waste. Economics assumes that the price system works to measure and motivate efficient use of resources. Environmentalism assumes that the price system fails.
An alliance between environmentalism and economics is possible, in which the environmentalist argument becomes an argument that price signals are incorrect. In principle, taxes should be raised on products whose market cost does not reflect the resources that are used in their production and disposal."

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