IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uwauwp/146501.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Value for Money in Environmental Policy and Environmental Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Pannell, David J.

Abstract

Requirements that environmental programs must meet in order to deliver value for money are identified, illustrated and discussed. It is argued that environmental managers and policy makers should carefully consider the extent to which potential policies and investments deliver environmental outcomes, not just outputs and activities. Processes for ranking potential environmental investments need to consider a sufficient set of information to properly evaluate benefits and costs. That information must be in a rigorous way. Many ranking systems in practical use do not meet these requirements. Environmental projects of different scales and intensities can vary greatly in the value for money that they offer, so different versions of a project should be evaluated and compared. The effectiveness of a program or project can be sensitive to the policy mechanism(s) used, so these too should be compared and evaluated for each potential project. Programs should be designed in a way that provides incentives for environmental managers to develop and pursue projects that provide high value for money, rather than creating barriers to that outcome. In some cases environmental economists could increase the value for money from investments in their research and analysis by avoiding the over-concentration of effort into a subset of the many types of information needed to make sound management and policy decisions. There are several reasons to expect that relatively less detailed or sophisticated information may provide greater value for money: diminishing marginal benefits from sophistication and detail, increasing marginal costs of sophistication and detail, and the limited capacities of potential users of this information. There is significant potential to improve the value for money generated by public investments in environmental projects and in environmental economics, although there are significant challenges in each case.

Suggested Citation

  • Pannell, David J., 2013. "Value for Money in Environmental Policy and Environmental Economics," Working Papers 146501, University of Western Australia, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uwauwp:146501
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.146501
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/146501/files/WP130004.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.146501?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pannell, David J. & Roberts, Anna M. & Park, Geoff & Alexander, Jennifer, 2013. "Improving environmental decisions: A transaction-costs story," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 244-252.
    2. Horowitz, John K. & Ebel, Robert M. & Ueda, Kohei, 2010. ""No-Till" Farming Is a Growing Practice," Economic Information Bulletin 96636, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. David J. Pannell, 2006. "Flat Earth Economics: The Far-reaching Consequences of Flat Payoff Functions in Economic Decision Making," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 28(4), pages 553-566.
    4. Dahlman, Carl J, 1979. "The Problem of Externality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(1), pages 141-162, April.
    5. Richard A. Fuller & Eve McDonald-Madden & Kerrie A. Wilson & Josie Carwardine & Hedley S. Grantham & James E. M. Watson & Carissa J. Klein & David C. Green & Hugh P. Possingham, 2010. "Replacing underperforming protected areas achieves better conservation outcomes," Nature, Nature, vol. 466(7304), pages 365-367, July.
    6. Roberts, Anna M. & Pannell, David J. & Doole, Graeme & Vigiak, Olga, 2012. "Agricultural land management strategies to reduce phosphorus loads in the Gippsland Lakes, Australia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 11-22.
    7. David J. Pannell, 2008. "Public Benefits, Private Benefits, and Policy Mechanism Choice for Land-Use Change for Environmental Benefits," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(2), pages 225-240.
    8. Pannell, David J., 2004. "Effectively communicating economics to policy makers," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 48(3), pages 1-21.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. McCann, Laura, 2013. "Transaction costs and environmental policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 253-262.
    2. Robbins, W., 2010. "Learning with Hard Labour: University Students as Workers," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 36(1), pages 103-120.
    3. Emile Noël, 1996. "Quelques réflexions sur les perspectives politico-institutionnelles de l'intégration européenne en 2000 et au-delà," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 39, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    4. Flavel, J., 2007. "The Aged Care Workforce: Methods to Increase Supply to Remedy Possible Shortages," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 33(1), pages 106-128.
    5. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, 1996. "The Genesis of EMU: A Retrospective View," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 40, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    6. Doessel, D. & Williams, R., 2011. "The 'Rise and Rise' of New Professional Groups: Mental Health Professions under Medicare," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 37(1), pages 97-126.
    7. Healy, Joshua Gregory, 2010. "Symposium 1: Fair Work Australia's First Minimum Wage Decision: Context, Impact and Future," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 36(3), pages 306-313.
    8. Richardson, Susan (Sue), 2009. "What is a skill shortage?," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 35(1), pages 326-354.
    9. Forsyth, A., 2006. "Arbitration Extinguished: the Impact of the Work Choice Legislation on the Australian Industrial Relations Commission," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 27-44.
    10. Paul McAleavy & Stefaan De Rynck, 1997. "Regional or Local? The EUs Future Partners in Cohesion Policy," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 55, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    11. Townsend, K. & Charles, M.B., 2008. "Jarhead and Deskilling in the Military: Potential Implications for the Australian Labour Market," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 34(1), pages 64-78.
    12. Esposto, A., 2011. "Upskilling and Polarisation in the Australian Labour Market: A Simple Analysis," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 37(2), pages 191-216.
    13. Carson, E. & Szuster, F., 2010. "Careers of South Australian health Professional Graduates," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 36(1), pages 1-28.
    14. Arthur Benz & Burkard Eberlein, 1998. "Regions in European Governance: The Logic of Multi-Level Interaction," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 31, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    15. Coggan, Anthea & Whitten, Stuart M. & Bennett, Jeff, 2010. "Influences of transaction costs in environmental policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1777-1784, July.
    16. Renaud Dehousse, 1998. "European Institutional Architecture after Amsterdam: Parliamentary System or Regulatory Structure?," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 11, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    17. Horst Günter Krenzler, 1998. "The Geostrategic and International Political Implications of EU Enlargement," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 2, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    18. van Grieken, M.E. & Roebeling, P.C. & Bohnet, I.C. & Whitten, S.M. & Webster, A.J. & Poggio, M. & Pannell, D., 2019. "Adoption of agricultural management for Great Barrier Reef water quality improvement in heterogeneous farming communities," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 1-8.
    19. Coggan, Anthea & Buitelaar, Edwin & Whitten, Stuart & Bennett, Jeff, 2013. "Factors that influence transaction costs in development offsets: Who bears what and why?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 222-231.
    20. McGuinness, Seamus & Webster, E & Mavromaras, Kostas, 2012. "What are the characteristics of the employers of the low paid in Australia?," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 38(1), pages 26-47.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uwauwp:146501. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aruwaau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.