环境与自然资源经济学PPT2 Tietenberg_8e_ppt24_final.pptVIP

Chapter 24 Visions of Future Revisited Addressing the Issues How the problem correctly conceptualized? Can our economic and political institutions respond in a timely and democratic fashion to the changes? Can the needs of the present generation to be met without compromising that of the future generation? Conceptualizing the Problem The growth in demand for resources is sensitive to their scarcity, for example, price and population growth. Characterizing resource base finite is misleading: It ignores the existence of a substantial renewable resource; It focuses attention on the wrong issue; It supports ill-conceived attempts to measure the size of resource base. Correct conceptualization of the resource scarcity suggests that both extremely pessimistic and extremely optimistic views are wrong. Improper incentives and inadequate information are more serious problems. Institutional Responses On the positive side, markets have responded swiftly and automatically to deal with the resources with higher prices, However, market would not automatically choose a dynamically efficient or a sustainable path for the future. Externalities are a barrier in the transition to sustainability. Efficient markets do not necessarily produce sustainable development. The capacity of the market for self-healing is not always adequate. Government intervention is needed. However, government intervention is not uniformly benign. For example, tough legislation and price control are counterproductive. Sustainable Development Empirical evidence suggests that increased environmental control has not currently had a large impact on the economy. The notion that respecting the environment is inevitably incompatible with a healthy economy is wrong. The economy is under transformation: the decline in population growth and the rise in importance of information. The increasing focus on corporations on corporate sustainability is also important. Economic growth will not automatically benefit people esp