From classical to ecological economics

Arild Vatn

Chapter 2 in Rethinking Ecological Economics, 2026, pp 19-34 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: A brief overview of the development of neoclassical economics is offered to help understand the rise of ecological economics, which appeared mainly as a reaction to the fact that the interest in environmental issues had disappeared from the mainstream. When environmental and resource economics finally developed, it was found limiting in several respects. Ecological economists saw environmental problems as necessary effects of the economic process and emphasized a focus on the scale of the economy and distributional issues as core aspects of the new position. The dominance of neoclassical economics and the fact that mainstream economists also engaged from the start in the establishment of ecological economics is part of the explanation for its incoherence. The chapter also includes an analysis of institutional economics as another reaction to the development of neoclassical economics – specifically its understanding of human behavior as rooted in the theory of economic man.

Keywords: History of economic thought; Neoclassical economics; Ecological economics; Institutional economics; Controversies in economic thinking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781803921839
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