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00-05 "Getting the Prices Wrong: The Limits of Market-Based Environmental Policy."

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Frank Ackerman
Kevin Gallagher

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Abstract

Market based policies are fast becoming the recommended policy panacea for all the world's environmental problems. Implicit in such recommendations is the theory that free markets, adjusted for externalities, can always create an "efficient" allocation of society's resources. As a result, many contemporary policymakers advocate rolling back regulations in order to let the market protect the environment. There is a fundamental distinction between the use of the market as a tool to help achieve society's goals, and as a blueprint for society's goals; the market is a reasonable policy tool but not a reasonable blueprint. The market as blueprint fails because there are significant public purposes that cannot be achieved by prices and markets alone. Five major arguments show that getting the prices right is often a narrow or meaningless objective; society may intentionally and appropriately choose to "get the prices wrong" in order to pursue more important goals.

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Paper provided by GDAE, Tufts University in its series GDAE Working Papers with number 00-05.

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Handle: RePEc:dae:daepap:00-05

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Hartwick, John M, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investing of Rents from Exhaustible Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 972-74, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Gustafsson, Bo, 1998. "Scope and limits of the market mechanism in environmental management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 259-274, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Diamond, Peter A & Hausman, Jerry A, 1994. "Contingent Valuation: Is Some Number Better than No Number?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 45-64, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Bromley, Daniel W., 1998. "Searching for sustainability: The poverty of spontaneous order," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 231-240, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Ackerman, Frank & Moomaw, William, 1997. "SO2 emissions trading: does it work?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 10(7), pages 61-66. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Richard Howarth & Richard Norgaard, 1993. "Intergenerational transfers and the social discount rate," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 3(4), pages 337-358, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Frank Ackerman, . "00-01 "Still Dead After All These Years: Interpreting the Failure of General Equilibrium Theory."," GDAE Working Papers 00-01, GDAE, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
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  1. Frank Ackerman & Kevin Gallagher, . "01-02 "Mixed Signals: Market Incentives, Recycling, and the Price Spike of 1995"," GDAE Working Papers 01-02, GDAE, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
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