On the Economics and the Politics of Environmental Protection

Edmund H. Mantell

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1985, vol. 44, issue 4, 435-447

Abstract: Abstract. TWO loci of discussion respecting national policies for environmental protection are synthesized. Most economic discussions are couched in terms of analytical measurements of the social benefits and costs of different policies. But most political science discussions are couched in terms of the procedural obstacles to implementation erected by special interest groups. The standard tool of marginal cost/benefit analysis is applied to reveal how the redistribution of real income among distinct special interest groups determines the extent to which those groups align themselves politically. Many of the apparent conflicts among policy objectives in the area of environmental protection, full employment, and an acceptable distribution of income, can be mitigated by means of a carefully designed program of selective law enforcement and tax‐financed subsidies.

Date: 1985
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.1985.tb02374.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:44:y:1985:i:4:p:435-447

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0002-9246

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Economics and Sociology is currently edited by Laurence S. Moss

More articles in American Journal of Economics and Sociology from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().