Economics, Ethics and Environmental Problems

The relevance and usefulness of mainstream or neoclassical economics has been questioned more in some fields of inquiry than in others. Against the background of an attempt to characterize environmental problems, the fruitfulness of conventional ideas of economic analysis, as carried out in practice in the form of cost-benefit analysis, is questioned. Alternative approaches judged to be more compatible with environmental problems are indicated.It is argued that cost-benefit analysis represents a closed ethic or ideology and that approaches which open the way for various possible ethical or ideological standpoints are more promising. Different principles of resource allocation or housekeeping should be considered and the idea of only one “scientifically correct†or “true†principle abandoned. Non-monetary principles of housekeeping, such as specific versions of ecological ethics, are not “less economic†than the now dominant monetary principles.