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Freedom Versus Coercion in Industrial Ecology: A Reply to Boons

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  • Pierre Desrochers

Abstract

I have published many articles arguing that industrial and inter-firm recycling was widespread before 1900 and overwhelmingly the result of market forces. Treating my papers to 2005, Frank Boons (2008) challenges those conclusions. He also criticizes me for neglecting structural, cultural, and political considerations. As a result, he suggests, my case on behalf of free enterprise as the preferred coordinating arrangement to stimulate inter-firm recycling is untenable. In this article I reply to Boons and treat related work by business historian Christine Meisner Rosen. I stand by my earlier claims and support them with additional evidence. I then provide short critiques of Boons’s other arguments, evidence, and interpretations.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Desrochers, 2012. "Freedom Versus Coercion in Industrial Ecology: A Reply to Boons," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(2), pages 78-99, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:9:y:2012:i:2:p:78-99
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre Desrochers, 2008. "Did the Invisible Hand Need a Regulatory Glove to Develop a Green Thumb? Some Historical Perspective on Market Incentives, Win-Win Innovations and the Porter Hypothesis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 41(4), pages 519-539, December.
    2. Pierre Desrochers & Samuli Leppälä, 2010. "Industrial Symbiosis: Old Wine in Recycled Bottles? Some Perspective from the History of Economic and Geographical Thought," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 33(3), pages 338-361, July.
    3. Desrochers, Pierre, 2007. "How did the Invisible Hand Handle Industrial Waste? By-product Development before the Modern Environmental Era," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 348-374, June.
    4. Rosen, Christine Meisner, 2007. "The Role of Pollution Regulation and Litigation in the Development of the U.S. Meatpacking Industry, 1865–1880," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 297-347, June.
    5. Debora Spar and Krysztof Bebenek, 2009. "To the Tap: Public versus Private Water Provision at the Turn of the Twentieth Century," Business History Review, Harvard Business School, vol. 83(4), pages 675-702, December.
    6. Karl Widerquist, 2012. "Reply to Comments," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: Karl Widerquist & Michael W. Howard (ed.), Exporting the Alaska Model, chapter 0, pages 233-240, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Desrochers, Pierre, 2009. "Victorian Pioneers of Corporate Sustainability," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(4), pages 703-729, January.
    8. Pierre Desrochers, 2010. "The environmental responsibility of business is to increase its profits (by creating value within the bounds of private property rights)," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(1), pages 161-204, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Elena Dieckmann & Leila Sheldrick & Mike Tennant & Rupert Myers & Christopher Cheeseman, 2020. "Analysis of Barriers to Transitioning from a Linear to a Circular Economy for End of Life Materials: A Case Study for Waste Feathers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-23, February.
    2. Frank Boons, 2012. "Freedom Versus Coercion in Industrial Ecology: Mind the Gap!," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(2), pages 100-111, May.
    3. Christine Meisner Rosen, 2012. "Fact Versus Conjecture in the History of Industrial Waste Utilization," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(2), pages 112-121, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Industrial ecology; inter-firm recycling; loop closing; by-products; resource conservation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q0 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q2 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy
    • Q38 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy (includes OPEC Policy)

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