GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND COMPENSATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND NATURAL RESOURCE USE

A collection of papers in this issue of Contemporary Economic Policy addresses compensation issues that arise from environmental policies. Goldstein and Waston, Bromley, Stroup, and Polasky et al. discuss whether or not government should compensate private property owners whose property values are reduced by regulatory restrictions. Dunford et al., Randall, Duffield, and Jones and Pease discuss the complexities of determining who should be compensated and by how much when public property is damaged by environmental contamination. This paper provides an overview of these studies and highlights the importance of the ongoing debate over compensation policy. Copyright 1997 Western Economic Association International.