Freedom Versus Coercion in Industrial Ecology: A Reply to Boons

Pierre Desrochers

Econ Journal Watch, 2012, vol. 9, issue 2, 78-99

Abstract: I have published many articles arguing that industrial and inter-firm recycling was widespread before 1900 and overwhelmingly the result of market forces. Treating my papers to 2005, Frank Boons (2008) challenges those conclusions. He also criticizes me for neglecting structural, cultural, and political considerations. As a result, he suggests, my case on behalf of free enterprise as the preferred coordinating arrangement to stimulate inter-firm recycling is untenable. In this article I reply to Boons and treat related work by business historian Christine Meisner Rosen. I stand by my earlier claims and support them with additional evidence. I then provide short critiques of Boons’s other arguments, evidence, and interpretations.

Keywords: Industrial ecology; inter-firm recycling; loop closing; by-products; resource conservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q0 Q01 Q2 Q28 Q38 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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