Book Review: Economics of Environmental Policy - A. Myrick Freeman,III, Robert Haveman, and Allen V. Kneese

Not long ago the economics of the environment consisted of a series of theoretical observations that: a) discharging pollution represented a classic externality, b) we should internalize the effect via taxes or subsidies (effluent charges in the jargon), and 3) as soon as some good engineers get us the production functions, as soon as physicians get us health damage functions. as soon as politicians get us social welfare functions for the aesthetics of a clean environment, etc., we will show them how to equate marginal cost with marginal benefit. The literature has now burgeoned with the proceedings of three major conferences held on the subject and numerous articles and books.