The Economics of Environmental Degradation: Tragedy for the Commons?

by Timothy M. Swanson (editor)

Identifies the underlying causes of continuing environmental degradation as poverty, population, poor policies, and trade, and analyzes them from the perspective of institutional economics. Drawing historical parallels, concludes that a problem arises whenever the human capacity to exploit the environment outruns the capacity of human institutions to adapt and evolve methods for managing the exploitation. Commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program. Assumes no previous knowledge of economics or the environment. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1996