Principles of Environmental Economics: An Integrated Economic and Ecological Approach: Ecology, Economics and Public Policy - Softcover

Hussen, Ahmed

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415195713 ISBN 13: 9780415195713

Publisher: Routledge, 1999

Synopsis

This text offers a systematic exposition of environmental and natural resource economics. It presents the economic and ecological principles essential for a clear understanding of contemporary environmental and natural resource issues and policy considerations. Environmental and natural resource issues are considered in a broad, interdisciplinary context that does not treat them as just another subset of applied economics. The main subject areas include:
* basic economic concepts specifically relevant to environmental economics
* the economics of natural resource scarcity
* ecology, economics and the biophysical constraints to economic growth
* ecological economics
* the economics of sustainable development
* the economics of pollution
* valuing the environment
* the economics of natural resources
* population, development and the environment.
The author develops specific tools to illuminate the central problems of environmental economics. Fundamental economic concepts specifically relevant to environmental and resource economics are introduced and then integrated with ecological principles and approaches. This text presents an integrated understanding of environmental and resource economics that acknowledges the disciplinary tie between economics and ecology. This student-friendly textbook includes a variety of study tools including case studies, revision questions and discussion questions.
Written in a clear and accessible style, Principles Of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics considers a variety of real world examples to illustrate the policy relevance and implications of key economic and ecological concepts.

About this title

Review

"This is a logically organized, well written text." - Douglas E. Booth, Marquette University

From the Author

A textbook that truly integrates economics and ecology.
Author's Comment:

I wrote this textbook for two compelling reasons. First, I wanted to write an introductory textbook in environmental and resource economics that truly attempts to integrate economics and ecology. Second, I wanted this textbook to be student friendly and easily accessible to undergraduates. I have taught environmental and resource economics to undergraduate students for the past two decades and have yet to see a textbook that makes a concerted effort to integrate economics and ecology in a comprehensive and meaningful way. In most standard textbooks, ecological concepts, to the extent they are included, are addressed on an ad hoc basis. It is the exisiting textbooks' neglect of the disciplinary ties between economics and ecology that eventually prompted me to write my own book.

Having said this, I claim that the distinguishing features of my textbook are the following:

1. The book is accessible to students with a course in microeconomics at an introductory level. The book devotes two "optional" chapters that are basically intended for reviewing basic microeconomic concepts and introducing students to economic concepts that are specially relevant to environmental and resource economics.

2. The textbook does not require a prior knowledge in ecology. A chapter is devoted to this specific subject. This chapter is written with one modest objective in mind - to offer non-science students a good understanding of the basic principles of the biological and physical sciences that govern the natural world.

3. To catch students' imagination and attention, as well as to reinforce understandings of basic theoretical principles, case studies and "exhibits" are incorporated into most of the chapters.

4. The textbook offers an in-depth and systematic analysis of the "preanalytic" conceptions of the "anthropocentric" versus the "biocentric" views of environmental and natural resources-an important subject matter for any effort to reconcile the differences between these two "worldviews" of natural resources.

5. The textbook is quite original in its effort to explicitly incorporate the recent contributions of ecological economics. It contains four chapters that exclusively deal with biophysical limits and the necessity for sustainable development. In so doing, this textbook is, I believe, the first to explicitly confront the issue of "scale" as an integral part (not to be treated in an appendix or as a caveat to a chapter) of a textbook in environmental and resource economics. Scale refers here to the relative size between human economy and the natural world.

6. The textbook offers rigorous and adequate treatments to all the topics normally included in standard text on "environmental and resource economics" with one important difference. This difference stems from conscious efforts made to interject ecological perspectives relevant to the main issues addressed in most of the chapters that are the predominantly neoclassical in their approaches. These efforts are not made casually either.

7. This textbook is clearly interdisciplinary in its focus, and this is done without compromising on the quality and relevance of the economic content of the book.

8. To summarize, this textbook offers a comprehensive and balanced treatment of environmental and resource issues. Furthermore, the materials in the text are presented at a level that undergraduate students, from various disciplines and with little background in economics, can understand and appreciate.

To backup some of the claims that I have provided, here are two comments from reviewers of my book with whom I have no personal acquaintance:

"This is a well researched and comprehensive text that offers an alternative and refreshing perspective to environmental issues." (Lynton J. Bussell, University of Teesside, UK)

"This is a logically organized, well written text. Its distinguishing element is its explicit consideration of ecology, ecological economics, and sustainable development." (Douglas E. Booth, Marquette University, USA)

*In addition, the following are some representative comments from students' evaluation of my course in environmental and resource economics during the Winter quarter (semester) that just ended.

"The book is very good. I think I will probably keep it for a reference text."

"Text is very good. Clear, easy to understand, very organized and laid out in a clear and organized fashion."

"Liked the text. Cheap, easy to read, great graphs and case studies."

"Book is good. I liked the case studies and real world examples. Would be more helpful sometimes if the graphs were on the same page as the text that describes them."

"Text was awesome. Some definitions are hard to locate. May be the text should include glossary of terms in bold for 2nd edition."

"Book went along well with lectures. Graphs were helpful and clearly explained. It would be helpful if they could be in colour in the book."

"The book was very good. It was easy to read. The style was not complicated, which helped because some of the concepts were. It was well structured and organized. Actually, one of the best textbooks I have had to read."

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415195713
• ISBN 13: 9780415195713
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464