This book interprets nature and the environment as a scarce resource, offering a study of the allocation problem and outlining alternative policy approaches to the environmental problem. The author incorporates several economic approaches, including neoclassical analysis, the public goods approach and optimization theory. The sixth edition includes new sections on ethical aspects of environmental evaluation, pollution and endogenous growth, implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, international emission trading and biodiversity.

Résumé
The labor of nature is paid, not because she does much, but because she does little. In proportion as she becomes niggardly in her gifts, she exacts a greater price for her work. Where she is munificently bene- cent, she always works gratis. David Ricardo* This book interprets nature and the environment as a scarce resource. Whereas in the past people lived in a paradise of environmental superabundance, at p- sent environmental goods and services are no longer in ample supply. The en- ronment fulfills many functions for the economy: it serves as a public-c- sumption good, as a provider of natural resources, and as receptacle of waste. These different functions compete with each other. Releasing more pollutants into the environment reduces environmental quality, and a better environm- tal quality implies that the environment's use as a receptacle of waste has to be restrained. Consequently, environmental disruption and environmental use are by nature allocation problems. This is the basic message of this book.

Contenu
The Problem.- Using the Environment An Allocation Problem.- Static Allocation Aspect.- Production Theory and Transformation Space.- Optimal Environmental Use.- Environmental Quality as a Public Good.- Property-Rights Approach to the Environmental Problem.- Environmental-Policy Instruments.- Incidence of an Emission Tax.- Policy Instruments.- Policy Instruments and the Casuistics of Pollution.- The Political Economy of Environmental Scarcity.- Environmental Allocation in Space.- Environmental Endowment, Competitiveness and Trade.- Transfrontier Pollution.- Global Environmental Media.- Regional Aspects of Environmental Allocation.- Environmental Allocation in Time and under Uncertainty.- Long-Term Aspects of Environmental Quality.- Economic Growth, Sustainability and Environmental Quality.- Risk and Environmental Allocation.