Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or empirical studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies around the world. ... Particular issues include the costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies to deal with air pollution, water quality, toxic substances, solid waste, and global warming."
The Dust Bowl was the result of a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors and human-made factors: a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion, most notably the destruction of the natural topsoil by settlers in the region. The drought came in three waves: 1934, 1936, and 1939–1940, but some regions of the High Plains experienced drought conditions for as long as eight years.
Ecological economics, bioeconomics, ecolonomy, eco-economics, or ecol-econ is both a transdisciplinary and an interdisciplinary field of academic research addressing the interdependence and coevolution of human economies and natural ecosystems, both intertemporally and spatially. By treating the economy as a subsystem of Earth's larger ecosystem, and by emphasizing the preservation of natural capital, the field of ecological economics is differentiated from environmental economics, which is the mainstream economic analysis of the environment. One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing strong sustainability and rejecting the proposition that physical (human-made) capital can substitute for natural capital.
Free-market environmentalism argues that the free market, property rights, and tort law provide the best means of preserving the environment, internalizing pollution costs, and conserving resources.
Eco-capitalism, also known as environmental capitalism or (sometimes) green capitalism, is the view that capital exists in nature as "natural capital" on which all wealth depends. Therefore, governments should use market-based policy-instruments to resolve environmental problems.
The Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE), based in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, is an American think tank that promotes free-market environmentalism. FREE emphasizes reliance on market mechanisms and private property rights, rather than on regulation, for protection of the environment. Its chairperson, John Baden, stresses decentralization: a shift of control from what he calls "green platonic despots" in the federal government to "local interests," including environmental groups. Citing conservation efforts such as those involving the Rocky Mountain Elk, Pheasants Forever, and Trout Unlimited, Baden asserts that the ideas FREE promotes have become "the norm among progressive, intellectually honest and successful environmentalists." FREE's mission is to attract and work with conservationists, conservatives, and classical liberals who treasure responsible liberty, sustainable ecology, and modest prosperity.
Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage. It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil ecosystem. Throughout the 20th century the discipline expanded and the current scope of the discipline is much broader. Agricultural economics today includes a variety of applied areas, having considerable overlap with conventional economics. Agricultural economists have made substantial contributions to research in economics, econometrics, development economics, and environmental economics. Agricultural economics influences food policy, agricultural policy, and environmental policy.
John A. Baden is founder and chairman of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) based in Bozeman, Montana. In addition to FREE. he cofounded the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), the Environmental Management MBA program at the University of Washington, and Warriors and Quiet Waters. He has taught at Indiana University, Montana State University, Utah State University, and the University of Washington. Baden and his wife, Ramona Marotz-Badem, own a ranch in Gallatin Gateway, outside Bozeman, Montana.
PERC, Perc or perc may refer to:
Bruce Yandle is Dean Emeritus of Clemson University's College of Business and Behavioral Science and Alumni Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Clemson. He is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Economics at the Mercatus Center, a faculty member with George Mason University's Capitol Hill Campus, and a Senior Fellow with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). He has served as executive director of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., and served as senior economist on the President's Council on Wage and Price Stability from 1976 to 1978.
Bruce L. Benson is an American academic economist who is recognized as an authority on law and economics and a major exponent of anarcho-capitalist legal theory. He is chair of the department of economics, DeVoe L. Moore Professor, distinguished research professor and courtesy professor of law at Florida State University and the recipient of the 2006 Adam Smith Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Association of Private Enterprise Education. He is a senior fellow at the Independent Institute and has recently been a Fulbright Senior Specialist in the Czech Republic, visiting professor at the university de Paris Pantheonon Assas, a Property-and-Environment-Research-Center Julian Simon Fellow, and visiting research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.
Daniel W. Bromley is an economist, the former Anderson-Bascom Professor of applied economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and since 2009, Emeritus Professor. His research in institutional economics explains the foundations of property rights, natural resources and the environment; and economic development. He has been editor of the journal Land Economics since 1974.
Rural economics is the study of rural economies. Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems. Rural development and finance attempt to solve larger challenges within rural economics. These economic issues are often connected to the migration from rural areas due to lack of economic activities and rural poverty. Some interventions have been very successful in some parts of the world, with rural electrification and rural tourism providing anchors for transforming economies in some rural areas. These challenges often create rural-urban income disparities.
Enviro-Capitalists: Doing Good While Doing Well is a 1997 book written by economists Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal. In this book, Anderson and Leal further developed the concept of free-market environmentalism, which they first described in their 1992 book Free Market Environmentalism. The book argues that privatization of sectors like wildlife conservation, aquatic habitat development and environment-friendly housing is beneficial and environmental protection should be done by private entrepreneurs, not by the federal government. Enviro-Capitalists received the 1997 Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award.
Richard Lyndell Stroup (1943-2021) was a free-market environmentalist and emeritus professor of economics at both North Carolina State University and Montana State University. He was co-founder of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and a senior fellow. He was also a research fellow at the Independent Institute, adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute, and a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society. At Montana State University, he served as head of the Department of Agricultural Economics & Economics from 2003 to 2006. Stroup was director of the Office of Policy Analysis in the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1982 to 1984.
Terry Lee Anderson is an academic and author primarily focused on the intersection of economic and environmental issues in America. Anderson's works argue that market approaches can be both economically sound and environmentally sensitive. Influenced by the Austrian school of economic thought, his research helped launch the idea of free-market environmentalism and has prompted public debate over the proper role of government in managing natural resources.
Free Market Environmentalism is a book by Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal that was of great importance to the free market environmentalist movement.
Jane S. Shaw (also Jane Shaw Stroup) is an American free-market environmentalist, editor, and journalist. She is the former president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal and currently is chairman of its board of directors. She is a free-lance editor and manages two blogs, Janetakesonhistory.org. and libertyandecology.org.
David Zilberman is an Israeli-American agricultural economist, professor and Robinson Chair in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Zilberman has been a professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department at UC Berkeley since 1979. His research has covered a range of fields including the economics of production technology and risk in agriculture, agricultural and environmental policy, marketing and more recently the economics of climate change, biofuel and biotechnology. He won the 2019 Wolf Prize in Agriculture, he is a member of the US National Academy Science since 2019, was the President of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), and is a Fellow of the AAEA, Association of Environmental and Resource Economics, and the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics. David is an avid blogger on the Berkeley Blog and a life-long Golden State Warriors fan.
Gary Don Libecap is a Distinguished Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California Santa Barbara. Libecap is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; a senior fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center, and a member of the Research Group on Political Institutions and Economic Policy, Harvard University. He was the Erskine Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 2019; Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University 2010–11, and was previously the Anheuser Busch Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Economics, and Law at the University of Arizona.
