Economic models of climate change typically analyze its short-run effects, for example, up to the year 2100 or for a doubling of atmospheric CO2. This is a potentially serious shortcoming since under a business-as-usual scenario, atmospheric CO2 concentrations could more than quadruple. We...

Two research programs are brought together to contribute to the growing body of work on alternatives to standard welfare-based approaches to environmental valuation and policy. The first is the theoretical literature undermining the “new welfare economics.” The second is the growing body of...

The value of biodiversity is discussed at different levels including market value, non-market values to humans, and the value of biodiversity to ecosystems. The main conclusion is that, although market exchange values of environmental services may be used to justify biodiversity protection...

This paper examines two Pacific Island cultures, Easter Island and Tikopia, and the relationship between natural resource systems, human-made capital, population growth, and institutional change. Easter Island followed a preindustrial society pattern of overshoot-and collapse. However, Tikopia...