Click here for Rob Stavins' second installment of his The Environmental Forum®, Economic Perspective series, "The Myth Of Simple Market Solutions." Rob concludes:
The bottom line is that no particular form of government intervention, no individual policy nstrument — whether market-based or conventional — is appropriate for all environmental problems. There is no simple policy panacea. The simplest market instruments do not always provide the best solutions, and sometimes not even satisfactory ones. If a cost-effective policy instrument is used to achieve an inefficient environmental target — one that does not make the world better off; that is, one that fails a benefit-cost test — then we have succeeded only in “designing a fast train to the wrong station.” Nevertheless, market-based instruments are now part of the available environmental policy portfolio, and ultimately that is good news both for environmental protection and economic well-being.
Here is the link to the first column.
