The Answer Desk is back...later than ever. Enjoy.
Category: Things must be really boring at home...
As a lifelong environmentalist but not an economist, I stumbled upon your discipline earlier this year. I was thinking "forget about environmental lawyers, they can only work within the existing laws - there should be environmental economists to tell us why protecting the environment makes economic sense. After all, in the US everything has to make dollar sense." I googled it and found you do exist! I joined AERE and get the JEEM (I have to hum through the math) and think it's great the research you're doing. My question is: have environmental economists had any real effect on changing policy in the US? If so, can you cite an example? Is it all at the federal (like EPA) level?
First some definitions:
On to the questions: "have environmental economists had any real effect on changing policy in the US? If so, can you cite an example?" Of course we like to hang our hats on the EPA's Acid Rain Program's tradeable emissions permit program for sulfur dioxide. But environmental economists have successfully infiltrated many U.S. policy agencies. The EPA has a National Center for Environmental Economics, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hires environmental economists, as does the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. I'm sure I'm missing others, but we are so pervasive in the public policy arena that it's impossible to demonstrate our sphere of influence in this limited space.
I am currently pursuing a degree in economics. I am interested I becoming an environmental economist. I would like to find out more about this career and about how I should pursue it. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Here's how I got into environmental economics: As a child of the 60's, I came to realize that we--as humans--are one with nature. What we take we must give back. To fight the environmental blight that is capitalism, I ventured on a path of collision with the enemy. By understanding the economic model of capitalism I could use that knowledge to 'beat them at their own game.' OK, that's a complete lie.
Here's how I got involved in environmental economics. I grew up in suburban Maryland with no awareness of the environment. I was an OK student in high school and decided to go to a local commuter college to major in architecture. Unfortunately the school I picked--the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) didn't have an architecture program. Instead of transferring and wasting a year of college, I decided to switch majors to physics...the natural choice, right? Why physics? Because I got an 'A' in my freshman physics class of course--as you will see, my ability to earn good grades dominates my decision rules. Anyway, I didn't know that the physics for freshman and physics for physics majors were different. Upon that realization--and a 'C' in my second physics class, I changed majors to engineering. Unfortunately again, I had no idea what an engineer does so I was quickly bored. Now what? Well, I did well in my freshman econ class, so I thought maybe I should give that a look. I took another econ class and got another 'A.' That's when I realized I might be onto something. So I decided to major in econ and minor in accounting. Unfortunately--my favorite word when describing how I make decisions--accounting sucks--er I mean, I don't like accounting. So now I'm in my junior year as an econ major with absolutely no idea what an economist does. All I know is that I seem to keep getting good grades in econ classes so this must be right for me. In my first semester as a senior I had the good fortune of taking an environmental economics class with Professor Virginia (Ginny) McConnell. For that class, I wrote a paper on the economic effects of plastic disposal in the Chesapeake Bay. Why? Because I happened to see a story about it on the news a couple of days before the paper was due--it's important to keep in mind that I grew up less than 10 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, and yet at this point I had absolutely no knowledge of (or interest in) the quality of the Bay. Anyway, Dr. McConnell seemed to like the paper and told me that her husband was working on the economics of marine debris at the University of Maryland--I should go talk to him. I did, and in my senior year, Professor Ted McConnell hired me as an undergraduate research assistant. Around the same time Ginny and Ted both encouraged me to apply to the Ph.D. program in Agricultural and Resource Economics at Maryland. I did, and in March of 1991, I received a letter of offer to attend Maryland as a graduate research assistant. My reaction? "My dreams of becoming an environmental economist will finally come true." OK, I'm lying again. My real reaction? "Holy S**t! Someone is willing to pay me to go to school." So I went to the University of Maryland for my Ph.D. studies and was immediately blown out of the water by the level of difficulty, the level of intensity, and the level of interest everyone else seemed to have. Everyone else seemed to know why they were there...me, I was there because of pure dumb luck and ignorance. Fortunately for me, I survived the first year and realized that the things I was good at matched well with what Ted McConnell had hired me to do. Somehow he knew what I was good at before I did. We have had a great working relationship ever since...I think I have something in my eye.
So you ask how you should pursue a career in environmental economics? Based on my experience, walk around blindly until you stumble into the right situation. Otherwise, you might want to take a look at the AERE survey of graduate programs to start to gather information about good graduate programs in environmental economics.
Category: Will you please do my homework for me?
- Are you familiar with the Harvard case study about Champion International? It deals with logging in the pacific nw and the northern spotted owl. I need to do an econ analysis calculating Champion's IRR. I'm looking for online resources but not coming up with any, if you can help let me know. Thanks.
- What are the definitions for first-best and second-best solutions in environmental economics?
- Does the economic effects of environmental public policy outweight the costs?
- What are the Economic effects of better fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles? More specifically looking at how much economic impact raising the the CAFE standards would have on the automaker industry.
- If a study's results show that the benefits of eliminating a pollutant are greater than the costs, would it be efficient to enact a policy to eliminate all emissions of the pollutant?
- Hello. My name is [withheld] and I am writing a paper on the economic, social, and environmental costs of consumerism in the United States. We have to find the history of consumerism, and the effects of youth today and why they are targeted. So if there is anything that you could do to aid my project to be more fully aware of the economic matter at hand, it would be greatly appreciated.
thanx again - What is Micro Public Policy and how does it enforce limits and scope to companies?
If you could, please give an example of a company or corporation that is limited in its abilities due to micro public policy.
Category: You shouldn't listen to what other think.
I heard that economists consider human made capital ( such as roads) and natural capital to be substitutable, implying that decrease in natural assets can be compensated by increase in human made assets. How can artificial capital made by humans be a substitute for natural capital? Or was I misinformed about what economists hold?
To an extent that is correct. Natural capital and man-made capital can be substituted...up to a point. No economist I know would ever claim that man-made capital and natural capital are perfect substitutes. But I think most would agree that plastic is a good substitute for wood at least until we run out of oil. I've heard it argued that nothing man-made could ever replace the aesthetic value of natural assets. My reaction? I get as much enjoyment from looking at good architecture as I do from seeing the Grand Canyon. Man made capital and natural capital ARE substitutes. But all economists--at least those we would let in the club--would agree that we could never full substitute man-made capital for natural capital. Just as we could never fully substitute labor for land to produce agricultural product...it takes both types of capital to efficiently produce almost any good.
Category: Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, I know this one...
I cannot understand why, when oil prices are high, oil companies profit more. Shouldn't high prices pinch the producers as much as they do the consumers? Why don't the oil companies bear some of the higher costs of the feedstocks and why doesn't the market work to knock down hefty short-term oil profits?
How much of a price increase gets passed on to consumers depends on how much consumers react to price changes. In the case of oil, demand is highly inelastic meaning that consumers react very little to a price increase. So when we have a supply shock (like Hurricane Katrina), the supply decreases, but the quantity consumed changes very little in the short term. So, producers are selling the same amount of oil at higher prices. Profits increase. The market is working, just not in a happy way for consumers.
While I follow the logic of discounting in CBA, surely as resources become scarcer in the future, this would (in some cases, say, where agricultural land is being consumed) counteract the effect of the discount rate and potentially increase future costs. Also the assumption of declining future costs would be invalid if we approached some use/impact threshold. Is there anywhere in the literature I could look to see where these issues are debated?
Discount rates and costs are independent of each other. You are exactly right that scarcity costs will increase in the future. But those increasing costs will still be discounted to the present value. Take for example a cost of $10 one year from now. At a 10% discount rate, that $10 has a present value of $9.10 today (10/1.1). If the costs increase to $15 1-year from now, the present value is $13.64. So the discount factor stays the same, but the increased present value of costs are driven by increased future scarcity costs.
Category: Sarcastic responses...no offense intended
Why would environmentalists say that nitrogen fertilizers harm the environment twice?
Because they are over-reactionary zealots...oops did I say that out loud? OH, COME ON. IT'S A JOKE...LIGHTEN UP!
How much oxygen is given out by a fully grown tree in a day?
How much CO2 is consumed by a plant in one year?
How much water is consumed by a tree?
I'm no biologist, but doesn't it depend on the size of the tree?
what is the correlation of sustainable development with environmental economics?
can you plese explain it to me...
thanks... =)
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Perhaps There's a better place for this question. If I wanted to and I do How would I go about purchasing a small tract of hectarage in the amazon rainforest? What property tax and penalties does one occure for the privelage of dwelling on pristine rainforest land? Save the rainforest (for yourself!).
Is this like trying to sell me some 'waterfront' property in Florida?
How can you assign an economic value to plants and animals?
Have you ever been to the grocery store?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
