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Author: Ray Challen Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing ISBN: 9781781956427 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
'This is an excellent piece of work, applying the economic theory of property rights and transaction costs to the complex policy problems associated with water use in irrigation. Challen examines the determination of transaction costs and the way they interact with a realistic specification of property rights. He thereby avoids the two main defects found in much work in this area: first, the use of a simplistic division of property rights schemes, for example one based on polar categories of private property and common property, defined to mean open access, and second, a tendency to use the category of transaction costs as an unexamined "black box".' - John Quiggin, James Cook University, Australia 'A most encouraging trend in economics concerns the careful and non-teleological study of institutions. From an era in which institutions were completely ignored, through an era in which it was thought that institutions were mere constraints on otherwise beneficent behavior in markets, through an era in which it was thought that the purpose of institutions was to promote economic efficiency, we now seem to be firmly in an era in which it is understood that institutions are the very bedrock of economic and social interaction. The analysis of institutions will fall into incoherence if we insist on seeing them as teleological rather than as instrumental. Once there, we must still understand the purposes that different individuals and collectivities ascribe to particular institutional set ups. In this careful book Ray Challen offers clear conceptual guidance to the study of economic institutions. He also shows us how one can undertake the analysis of institutional choice. The problem setting is water resources in eastern Australia. The lessons are profoundly international, and the approach is refreshingly promising.' - Daniel W. Bromley, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US Conventional economic analysis of property rights in natural resources is too narrow and restrictive to allow for effective comparisons between alternative institutional structures. In this book, a conceptual framework is developed for the analysis of these structures with illustrative application to the allocation of water resources.
Author: Ray Challen Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing ISBN: 9781781956427 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
'This is an excellent piece of work, applying the economic theory of property rights and transaction costs to the complex policy problems associated with water use in irrigation. Challen examines the determination of transaction costs and the way they interact with a realistic specification of property rights. He thereby avoids the two main defects found in much work in this area: first, the use of a simplistic division of property rights schemes, for example one based on polar categories of private property and common property, defined to mean open access, and second, a tendency to use the category of transaction costs as an unexamined "black box".' - John Quiggin, James Cook University, Australia 'A most encouraging trend in economics concerns the careful and non-teleological study of institutions. From an era in which institutions were completely ignored, through an era in which it was thought that institutions were mere constraints on otherwise beneficent behavior in markets, through an era in which it was thought that the purpose of institutions was to promote economic efficiency, we now seem to be firmly in an era in which it is understood that institutions are the very bedrock of economic and social interaction. The analysis of institutions will fall into incoherence if we insist on seeing them as teleological rather than as instrumental. Once there, we must still understand the purposes that different individuals and collectivities ascribe to particular institutional set ups. In this careful book Ray Challen offers clear conceptual guidance to the study of economic institutions. He also shows us how one can undertake the analysis of institutional choice. The problem setting is water resources in eastern Australia. The lessons are profoundly international, and the approach is refreshingly promising.' - Daniel W. Bromley, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US Conventional economic analysis of property rights in natural resources is too narrow and restrictive to allow for effective comparisons between alternative institutional structures. In this book, a conceptual framework is developed for the analysis of these structures with illustrative application to the allocation of water resources.
Author: Anthea Jane Coggan Publisher: ISBN: Category : Environmental policy Languages : en Pages : 484
Book Description
New Institutional Economists define transaction costs as the costs to define, establish maintain and exchange property rights. This definition, one among many, enables the consideration of the cost to create, use and move between institutions (Marshall, 2013; McCann, 2013). For a policymaker, transaction costs are the cost of time and effort invested in researching the problem, creating, implementing, administering, monitoring and enforcing the policy. For an individual engaged with or affected by the policy, transaction costs are the cost of time and effort invested in learning about and interacting with the policy. Transaction costs of the policymaker have been reported to range from 1 to 110 per cent of the government payments for farm payment schemes (Rorstad et al., 2007). For the private landholder, transaction costs have been shown to be up to 15 per cent of the total cost of being involved in a policy (Mettepenningen & Van Huylenbroeck, 2009).
Author: Arild Vatn Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing ISBN: 184542574X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 496
Book Description
Vatn has prepared a vast feast for his readers. Hopefully, this book will become one of the core textbooks both in institutional economics and in resource economics. As a political scientist, I can recommend it to social scientists more generally. I must confess, I enjoyed it all. Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel Laureate, Land Economics Institutions and the Environment indeed serves as a first-rate starting point for students and researchers regardless of whether they are mainly interested in institutions in general or environmental governance and ecological economics in particular. Charlotta Söderberg, Environmental Politics This timely book is about institutions: how they develop, how they function and how they solve problems. . . This book exemplifies the fine institutionalist tradition of using knowledge to solve pressing problems; in fact, institutionalists will find little here to criticize. The scope of this book is wide: policy makers, government officials, institutionalists, environmentalists and the general public will all benefit from reading this book. . . Keep this book handy: you ll want to make frequent references as the global warming policy debate unfolds. Jack Reardon, Journal of Economic Issues Vatn s book addresses the urgent question of environmental policy and shows that an understanding of the role of institutions is vital in this area. It incorporates insights on institutions from both mainstream and heterodox traditions of thought. Magisterial and comprehensive, it is both a textbook and an inspiring, pioneering monograph. Geoffrey M. Hodgson, University of Hertfordshire, UK This is an excellent book, which can be read at different levels. . . I very much enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in these issues. I feel it is likely to become one of the core text books on the topic. Neil Powe, Newcastle University, UK We have here an encompassing work of remarkable clarity and coherence demonstrating the enduring pertinence of classical institutional economics to the vexing issues of our time. While most of the illustrative examples come from the realm of environmental problems, the reach of this fine book goes far beyond this particular issue and informs how we ought to think about all aspects of public policy. Daniel W. Bromley, University of Wisconsin, Madison, US This is a superb book on institutional economics and environmental policy. Vatn has written the definitive exposition of the theory and policy approaches of modern institutional economics. It not only builds on the work of the best institutional economists, from Veblen to Bromley and Hodgson it also incorporates the extremely relevant and exciting research now being done in contemporary mainstream economics. With the demise of Walrasian economics and the current drive for the unification of the behavioral sciences, the time is ripe for institutional economics to once again become a dominant school of economic thought. Vatn s book shows the way. John Gowdy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, US This important text develops an institutional response to the core issues raised in public policy making and develops a distinct understanding of the role of institutions, not least in the study of environmental problems. It questions: how are conflicting interests shaped and taken into account in policy making? How should they be accounted for? What motivates the behaviour of firms and individuals, and how is it possible to change these motivations to produce the favoured common outcomes? The author addresses these questions by integrating elements from classical institutional economics, neoclassical economics, sociology and ecological economics. He argues that public policy in general, and environmental policy in particular, are best examined from an institutional perspective. In this way the author presents a distinct and consistent alternative to standard neoclassical economics for students and scholars who
Author: Beat Buergenmeier Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
This paper uses a transaction cost approach in order to classify the different policy options that are currently discussed in relation to the Kyoto protocol. It analyses the market as only one of the possible collective decision making processes, which are available to operationalize the concept of sustainable development. The firm, the third sector, the government, the market are analysed as collective decision making processes. They are socially constructed in the sense that they are institutions, which are subject to change. Compared to initial and already existing institutions, the policy options for environmental protection are evaluated in the light of the associated transaction costs. The paper concludes with the recommendation for new institutional arrangements minimising transaction costs at both the national and international level.
Author: E. Woerdman Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 0080473067 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 341
Book Description
The objective of this book is to analyze the institutional barriers to implementing market-based climate policy, as well as to provide some opportunities to overcome them. The approach is that of institutional economics, with special emphasis on political transaction costs and path dependence. Instead of rejecting the neoclassical approach, this book uses it where fruitful and shows when and why it is necessary to employ a new or neo-institutionalist approach. The result is that equity is considered next to efficiency, that the evolution and possible lock-in of both formal and informal climate institutions are studied, and that attention is paid to the politics and law of economic instruments for climate policy, including some new empirical analyses. The research topics of this book include the set-up costs of a permit trading system, the risk that credit trading becomes locked-in, the potential legal problem of grandfathering in terms of actional subsidies under WTO law or state aid under EC law, and the changing attitudes of various European officials towards restricting the use of the Kyoto Mechanisms.
Author: Dale B. Thompson Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Many economists have studied the effects of political, administrative, and legal institutions on the design and performance of environmental policies. While there have been a number of empirical studies of some institutional effects, not all aspects of enforcement activities have been examined empirically. Some suggest that environmental policies should be evaluated by comparing the sum of their compliance costs and their enforcement costs. While we have many estimates of compliance costs, the costs of enforcement activities themselves have not been addressed empirically. Furthermore, we lack an integrative understanding of all of these institutional effects. An integrative approach is necessary because there are many tradeoffs between these effects, and these tradeoffs can be missed by less integrative approaches. This article uses an institutional-transaction-cost (ITC) framework to examine water quality policies, both empirically and in an integrative manner. We perform two comparisons, one of two point source policies and another of two nonpoint source policies. In the first, we compare a non-tradeable effluent limit permit policy versus an effluent charges policy. We see that even when ITC are considered, the economic-incentive-based policy of effluent charges is still a more cost-effective policy instrument than a command-and-control policy of NELP, although sensitivity analysis shows that this might not always be true. In the second, an effluent tax on irrigation districts is compared with a mandatory best-management-practices policy. We find that a decentralized enforcement body used in the case of the effluent tax will be both a more efficient and a more effective enforcement agency to control nonpoint pollution. In both of these comparisons, the ITC framework was used to generate detailed estimates of the costs of enforcing these policies. The methodology used is broadly applicable, and thus will be useful in estimating the costs of enforcing other environmental policies. Furthermore, these integrative comparisons offer insights into the tradeoffs generated by these policies. The second comparison focuses on the tradeoffs between higher detection costs due to the monitoring of discharges of an irrigation district versus corresponding reductions in other ITC. This article also examines tradeoffs from a specific design feature of the effluent charges system. By better understanding these tradeoffs, we more fully appreciate the complexities presented by these policies.