New Economic Theories

This paper analyses some of the most important spillovers of recent developments of economic theory into environmental economics. Attention is given to the anlaysis of sustainable economic development paths, where endogenous growth models are used; the implications of environmental dumping and more generally of policies concerning global environmental issues, where new trade theories are very useful; and, the effectiveness of environmental policy instruments when markets are imperfectly competitive, where industrial organisation theory is employed. The paper does not only note recent developments in environmental economics, but also relates these to the previous environmental economics literature. Thus, it can be assessed whether new results actually improve our knowledge of crucial economic and environmental issues.     

POLITICS AND THE NEW RESOURCE ECONOMICS

Two competing theories generally used, at least implicitly, to justify and analyze public resource management are scientific management and pluralism. We briefly review these theories and compare them to the new resource economics, an emerging body of theory which revises resource economics by introducing concepts from Austrian economics, property rights theory, and public choice. We argue that the new resource economics is superior to these traditional theories and then present specific policy proposals for the national forests, wilderness areas, and the public grazing lands. We also criticize new resource economists for not clearly distinguishing ideology from science, for emphasizing efficiency as a criterion for policy analysis, and for lacking political strategies for implementing their proposals     

A study of legal attributes of carbon emission rights in carbon trading

Clean Development Mechanism （CDM） has given birth to an international carbon trading market prosperity, which provides developing countries with valuable opportunity to address climate change issues right along with economic development and environmental improvement to achieve sustainable development. However, most studies of CDM focus on economics, and few on its legal problems. CDM involves too many aspects. And the clear legal attribute of trading object is the basis of progress of the transaction and also the start point of legal protection. Therefore, this paper in accordance with the inherent principle of property rights economics, and environmental economics in CDM, only discusses CDM carbon emission right legal interpretation and its attribution. The paper recommends that in order to ensure and promote the carbon emission right trading, carbon emission right should be attributed into the system of real rights to be regulated by Real Right Law. In this way, carbon emission right can gain exclusive power of possession and use, which can achieve a clear right definition of environmental goods in line with Coase＇s theory to protect Chinese profit in carbon trading market and promote the development of the carbon trading market further.     

Theories of practice — New inspiration for ecological economic studies on consumption

The dynamics behind ever-increasing consumption have long been a core issue of ecological economics. Studies on this topic have traditionally drawn not only on insights from economics, but also from such disciplines as sociology, anthropology and psychology. In recent years, a practice theory approach has emerged in sociological consumption studies, as part of a general wave of renewed interest in practice theory emanating from a desire to move beyond such dominant dualisms as the structure-actor opposition in sociology. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the practice theory approach in relation to studies of everyday life, domestic practices and consumption, and to argue that this approach can be fruitful for ecological economics and other fields interested in the environmental aspects of consumption. The paper emphasizes the immense challenge involved in promoting sustainable consumption, and the need for collective efforts supported by research into the co-evolution of domestic practices, systems of provision, supply chains and production.     

Changing concepts of ‘land’ in economic theory: From single to multi-disciplinary approaches

The role of land in economic theory is surveyed, both from a conceptual and historical perspective. Land has been incorporated in economic theories in various ways. Originally, land used by agriculture was the main motivation for an economic treatment of land. This was gradually extended with various other land use categories. Neoclassical economic theory gave less attention to land use, generally regarding land as a production factor of relatively little importance. Nevertheless, specialized sub-fields within economics such as regional and urban economics met the demand for explicit spatial analysis including land use considerations. Attention for environmental and resource problems has stimulated new perspectives on, and conceptualizations of, land in economic analysis. This involves the interaction with other disciplines as well as the use of spatially disaggregated methods of analysis. Awareness of the richness of ideas on land in economic theory can contribute to enhanced environmental research.     

Integrating the Traditional Job-Market Research Seminar with Instruction in the Undergraduate Classroom

The specialty area of environmental and resource economics is engaging the attention of an increasing number of economic educators. In this article, Christainsen reviews and evaluates some of the major textbooks from the perspective of the role of property rights in theory and in policy issues.     

Agricultural intensification, irrigation and the environment in South Asia: Issues and policy options

High population pressure and the rapid pace of human activity including urbanization, industrialization and other economic activities have led to a dwindling supply of arable land per capita and a process of agricultural intensification in South Asia. While this process has significantly increased food production to feed the growing population, it has also entailed considerable damage to the physical environment, including degradation and depletion of natural resources and unsustainable use of land and water resources. This paper employs the analytical tools of economic theory, environmental and ecological economics to model the impact of irrigation in South Asia. It underscores the need for an eclectic approach to policy responses stemming from private and common property rights theories, externality theory and sustainability theory with a view to environmentalizing agricultural development.     

Using Psychology to Reinforce the Austrian Argument for Freedom: The Case of Loan Decisions

The emphatic statements of F. A. Hayek, and other members of the Austrian school of economics, in advocacy of a free society have produced much misgivings among the economics profession. The paper aims to make the Austrian views more intelligible by tracing them back to a theory of the mind that Hayek develops in The Sensory Order. More generally, the paper argues that Austrian economics would greatly benefit from extending itself from a pure logic of choice toward psychological analysis. The argument is illustrated throughout the paper by examples taken from the loan decision process of a banker.     

Neoliberal ordnungstheorie and constitutional economics

Various new theoretical approaches, such as the economics of property rights, economic analysis of law or constitutional economics, have led to a renaissance of institutional theory. To a large extent, this renaissance emerged independently of the old institutionalism. In Germany, institutional analysis has a long and autonomous tradition, which has not been given proper international recognition. This applies especially to the neoliberal Ordnungstheorie, of which Walter Eucken is generally acknowledged to be the leading representative. This article examines the methodological and theoretical similarities and differences between Eucken's Ordnungstheorie and Buchanan's Constitutional Economics. I am indebted to Jack Wiseman for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

论人口、资源与环境经济学学科构架的理论基础

人口、资源与环境经济学是一门正在形成中的横跨生态学、经济学、社会学、战略学和法学的新兴学科。构建这一学科体系的理论基础是什么?人口、资源与环境之间及其经济运行过程是否具有内在的本质的联系?至今还未获得令人满意的答案。提出由物质本源论构建起人口、资源与环境经济学的广义物质变换理论基础;由社会发展构成要素论构建科学发展观的认识论基础;由广义经济学和人口、资源与环境之间的转换、循环、代谢与平衡理论构建人口、资源与环境经济学的学科理论体系的理论思路。试图揭示人口、资源与环境问题的实质,以期从根本上解决构建人口、资源与环境经济学学科的理论基石问题。     

From groundless universalism to grounded generalism: improving ecological economic indicators of human–environmental interaction

Ecological economics occasionally makes universal claims about how to understand and measure change in systems of human–environmental interaction. In terms of environmental policy, one of the most influential universal concepts that has come out of the ecological economics literature recently is ecological efficiency (or eco-efficiency). This article uses eco-efficiency as a vehicle to illustrate that universal indicators of human–environmental interaction are theoretically unfounded and practically problematic. Population ecology and neo-classical economics are identified as two theoretical approaches that have contributed to the emergence of universal concepts such as eco-efficiency. The limited applicability of the approaches is highlighted by putting them in comparative context with approaches that make less universal claims, namely, systems ecology and institutional economics. Investigating indicators of human–environmental interaction from disciplinary perspectives that are rarely found in indicator literature offers novel insights on what indicators are for and how they should be applied. The article concludes with a call for scale sensitive generalization in the development of future indicators.     

Do patents work? Thickets,trolls and antibiotic resistance

This paper connects ideas from recent literature on the economics of intellectual property (IP) to address the question: Did the strengthening and broadening of IP rights from important patent policy changes in the US promote greater innovation? The analysis rests on the theory of cumulative innovation, which shows that if IP rights on a pioneer invention extend to follow‐on research and impediments to contracting exist, then strengthening patents can actually reduce overall innovation. Recent empirical studies are consistent with the theory: patents can significantly deter follow‐on research in “complex” technology areas where contracting is difficult (computers, electronics, telecommunications) but not in drugs, chemicals and human genes. I outline remedies from court decisions and antitrust policy for addressing inefficiencies from patent trolling, patent thickets and the anti‐commons of fragmented ownership. I then apply the analysis to the antibiotics market, drawing on recent research, to examine how patent and competition policies can be used to improve incentives for drug development in the battle against antibiotic resistance. The literature provides persuasive evidence that the policy changes overreached in broadening and strengthening IP rights and reveals important patent reforms for improving the effectiveness of patent systems in the US and Canada.     

Environmental Policy Theory Given Bounded Rationality and Other-regarding Preferences

Established environmental policy theory is based on the assumption of homo economicus. This means that people are seen as fully rational and acting in a self-regarding manner. In line with this, economics emphasizes efficient policy solutions and the associated advantages of price incentives. Behavioral economics offers alternative, more realistic views on individual behavior. In this paper we investigate opportunities to integrate bounded rationality and other-regarding preferences into environmental policy theory to arrive at recommendations for more effective policies. For this purpose, we will address decisions made under risk and uncertainty, intertemporal choice, decision heuristics, other-regarding preferences, heterogeneity, evolutionary selection of behaviors, and the role of happiness. Three aspects of environmental policy are considered in detail, namely sustainable consumption, environmental valuation and policy design. We pay special attention to the role of non-pecuniary, informative instruments and illustrate the implications for climate policy.     

Does Environmental Economics Produce Aeroplanes Without Engines? On the Need for an Environmental Social Science

In this paper we first critically review conventional environmental economics. We conclude that the standard theory offers too narrow a perspective for many real world problems and that many theories are not empirically tested. Consequently, environmental economics is at risk of producing aeroplanes without engines. Next, we welcome and discuss some recent trends, particularly the rapid developments of behavioural and new institutional economics as well as the increased interest in empirical analysis. Yet, we conclude that more ‘logical duels’ between competing theories, more interaction between theory and empirics, and more integration between the social sciences are needed to achieve a better understanding of real world environmental problems and the development of adequate policy handles. Finally, we present an outline of steps towards the development of an environmental social science and briefly present the papers that make up this special issue as important building stones of such a discipline.     

The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump and Mr Biden

Max Corden and Ross Garnaut published ‘The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump’ in this journal in 2018. This paper examines what has transpired in the US economy against that article. It notes continuity in budget and trade policy from the Trump Presidency to the Biden Presidency. The continuity in macro-fiscal and trade policies is accompanied by a significant departure in the focus of fiscal expansion: Mr Biden's strong support for decarbonisation. The article applies Max Corden's approach to international economics to the question: should Australia emulate Mr Biden's combination of budget, protection and decarbonisation policies?     

A libertarian theory of rights and future generations

The central question in preserving the rights of future generations is how to ground a theory of rights that is also acceptable to the present generation, including staunch Republicans, without self-contradiction. Such a theory of rights consists of the three principles of a minimalist liberatarian theory (that of Robert Nozick), and demonstrates that environmental degradation is a violation of this theory of rights; a theory that is compatible with a free enterprise corporate culture. It is shown that no appeal to liberalism is necessary. It is shown that the case is not based on some ideals of justice but on three politically conservative principles that all modern societies accept as being fundamental to the continuation of those societies. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at Cornell University and at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Berlin. I would like to thank Dr Udo E. Simonis for his helpful comments, but I alone am responsible for any remaining errors. This research is financed by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant#410-94-1221.     

Farmer Brown v. Rancher Wyatt: Teaching the Coase Theorem

The Coase Theorem is a fundamental tenet of environmental economics and is taught to thousands of principles of microeconomics students each year. Its counterintuitive conclusion, that a Pareto optimal solution can result between private parties regardless of the initial allocation of property rights over a scarce resource, is difficult for students to understand. By using a mock trial that centers on a property dispute, students can be taught how the Coase Theorem works in practice with minimal preparation. The strong assumptions on which the Coase Theorem relies also can be included to show why the theorem may not hold. By using a unique, active learning technique, students will be more engaged and may have a better understanding of a difficult but seminal theory of economics.     

Concordian Economics: Tools to Return Relevance to Economics

With the help of planes and solids, this paper presents an enlargement of the field of observation of economic theory. Through this transformation, the distribution of ownership rights to money and wealth assumes a central position in economic analysis. Thus social relevance is returned to economics. The validity of this operation is confirmed by the return of the millenarian field of economic justice to its traditional function as guidance to economic policy. The paper then presents four sets of economic rights and responsibilities that offer the potential of translating principles of economic justice into the complexities of the modern world.

西藏民族文化旅游资源的保护性开发——基于产权经济理论和关联博弈理论双重视角

本文以巴泽尔产权经济模型为理论基础,分析了西藏民族文化旅游资源的特殊产权属性,指出西藏民族文化旅游资源在开发中受到破坏的制度经济学根源,并提出以关联博弈为基础健全社会声誉机制,规范利益博弈强势方的开发行为,基于产业发展的三大维度原则,构建西藏民族文化旅游资源的保护性开发体系。     

比较优势战略理论新证

竞争优势理论的追随者往往将比较优势与竞争优势两个范畴对立起来,或者干脆使用竞争优势理论来否定比较优势理论.林毅夫先生在指出对这两种理论相互关系的上述理解是错误的、主张竞争优势的建立离不开比较优势发挥的基础上,提出了经济发展的比较优势战略理论,引起了广泛的讨论.本文尝试通过新兴古典的超边际分析,论证了促进国际贸易的良性发展离不开比较优势的充分发挥,同时也为林毅夫先生的观点提供了佐证.