Environmental and Natural Resources Economics: Theory, Policy and the Sustainable Society

The 5th edition of Environmental and Natural Resources Economics: Theory, Policy, and the Sustainable Society expands on successful previous editions by adding new chapters on non-market valuation, ecosystem services and the use of behavioral economics for environmental policy, and reorganizing the text with a new methodology chapter that presents the tools in the environmental economist’s toolkit. In addition to these four new chapters the revised edition also incorporates a series of active learning exercises and in-class games to help students gain a deeper and immediate understanding of the key concepts being taught throughout the text.

The text is organized into four sections. The first section, Theory and Fundamentals, introduces the reader to the core principles of economics used throughout the text. The second section, Policy, illustrates how economic tools and methods are used for environmental policy analysis, focusing on incentive regulation, compliance and crime, and political economy. The next section, Natural Resource Economics, presents an introduction to natural resource economics, followed by an in-depth chapter on fisheries and a new chapter on ecosystem services. The final section, Topics on the Economics of Sustainability, introduces the concept of sustainability and then provides detailed examples and case studies in sustainable economic development, issues in sustainable production and issues in sustainable management of common pool resources.

The textbook is designed for use in an environmental and natural resource economics course, and as with prior editions, is versatile enough to work either for economics majors or for students in interdisciplinary environmental studies/science programs.