Public choice, an important subdiscipline in the field of political theory, seeks to understand how people and societies make decisions affecting their collective lives. Relying heavily on theoretical models of decision making, public choice postulates that people act in their individual interests in making collective decisions. As it happens, however, reality does not mirror theory, and people often act contrary to what the principal public choice models suggest. In this book, Russell Hardin looks beyond the models to find out why people choose to act together in situations that the models...

Presents a study that puts the amenity resources of natural environments into an analytical framework comparable to that for the extractive resources. This title points out that resource development activities undertaken on public lands often receive financial advantages that are not taken into account in the costs of the project.

Gibbons examines the water supply problem through five case studies. The problems faced by these regions and the methods suggested to overcome them provide excellent models for the entire United States. The case studies---typically, expanding supplies---but economic efficiency principles lead to emphasizing managing the demand. In many cases, this means reducing demand by raising prices.

In this book, Bowes and Krutilla bring together what is known and relevant about valuing the nonmarket services of the public forests and propose a new theoretical framework that allows multiple uses, the biological dynamics of the forest, and the institutional and economic realities of public forest management to be taken into account in forest planning and budgeting. The authors begin by tracing the development of multiple use in forest management and by exploring the multiple uses of the public forests and the economics of multiple-use forestry. They offer a masterful analysis of the...

For centuries, denuded landscapes, fouled streams and dirty air were accepted by society as part of the price that had to be paid for mineral production. Even initial environmental legislation devised by industrialized countries in the 1960s and 1970s was largely designed without mining in mind. And developing countries had little in the way of environmental policy.

Protecting environmental quality while pursuing economic development poses a particularly difficult challenge to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, where political and economic systems are changing rapidly following decades of environmental neglect and economic mismanagement. Advanced industrial nations also face difficult decisions about priorities and procedures for providing financial assistance to the region. In order to identify workable solutions, Pollution Abatement Strategies in Central and Eastern Europe investigates some of the leading pollution problems that...

Nobel Laureate Robert Solow explores how changes in social accounting practice could contribute to more rational debate and action in crafting economic and environmental policy. A thoughtful work about the wise use of society's natural resources, intergenerational equity, and the translation of ideas about sustainability into real policy.

The sharp rise in mineral use has revived concern about scarcity. Economist John Tilton responds by analyzing recent trends in the consumption and availability of minerals that are most integral to the needs of modern civilization. He reminds readers that, if the arguments about scarcity sound familiar, it is because the story of minerals scarcity is almost as old as human history-and so too is substitution and technological innovation. The issue at hand is the unprecedented acceleration in exploitation and use. Given global population growth, rising living standards, and environmental...

Research and policy toward sustainable forest management have often paid incomplete attention to the well being of local populations and their activities as forest managers. Where there has been recognition of local communities, the roles of marginalized groups and women are usually not well understood. This is despite evidence that equity and social relationships, including gender roles, are important factors in the ways that communities manage forest resources overall and adapt to change. The Equitable Forest provides in-depth analyses of equity and social roles within the context of...

Research and policy toward sustainable forest management have often paid incomplete attention to the well being of local populations and their activities as forest managers. Where there has been recognition of local communities, the roles of marginalized groups and women are usually not well understood. This is despite evidence that equity and social relationships, including gender roles, are important factors in the ways that communities manage forest resources overall and adapt to change. The Equitable Forest provides in-depth analyses of equity and social roles within the context of...