Richard Sandor spoke at Rhodes yesterday, and his lecture raised a number of points we have talked about this semester in my econ 100 class. For readers interested in studying environmental issues further and/or pursuing law as a career, here are a few things to read:
Ronald Coase, “The Problem of Social Cost.” This is one of the most highly-cited (and important) papers ever written. It is very long and very dense (and hence not assigned), but it is a paper you should read at some point during your undergraduate career. If you’re interested in law school, it is essential.
Harold Demsetz, “Toward a Theory of Property Rights.” Demsetz builds on Coase and helps us understand when property rights come to be formally developed. Walter Block has written extensively on Coase and Demsetz; here are some cites.
Murray Rothbard, “Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution.” Rothbard is critical of Coase and Demsetz, but aside from this his article is an excellent application of economics and legal theory to pollution problems.
David D. Friedman, Law’s Order. This is an excellent and accessible treatment of the economics of law. The version linked to here is a facsimile of the book available for $0 online.
In addition to these, you might find David Zetland’s research and public outreach interesting. He spoke at Rhodes in 2009; his website is here, and most of what I’ve learned about the day-to-day economics of water I’ve learned from reading his blog, aguanomics.com.
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Thank you for sharing these valuable resources. Environmental economics is what got me into libertarianism and to the Austrian School. After 10 years with the federal government in a supposed preservation agency, I woke up and saw that the federal government, instead of being a protector of the environment, is the largest polluter of the environment.
Frank,
You should write an article about your experiences and send it to mises.org.
So what’s the deal with water economics anyhow? I know Buffet Owns CocaCola which owns massive massive water rights in South America, and I know that billionaire T Boon Pickens owns millions of acres of water rights in the US midwest, but do we really have to water squeeze. From ice on the poles, to extracting it from the oceans, it seems like there is plenty of room for innovation and abundance. Also, it seems like cities love to build their central planing systems around water, and that the left is hysterically opposed to bottled water. So something is definitely going on with the water issue that I don’t understand. It would sure be nice to kick the socialists out of the water business though.
David,
I’d recommend taking a look at Water for Sale by Fedrik Segerfeldt, it’s a short book but really interesting and filled with excellent empirical data. David Zetland actually has a really informative review on this Amazon page, too.
I shouldn’t laugh, David, because your willingness to acknowledge not understanding the issue puts you way ahead of your peers. Still, the fact that you don’t understand the issue but know that the solution is “to kick the socialists out of the water business” is a highly amusing window into the thought process of the Miseian neo-Marxist.
Art, thanks for this brief but excellent list.
I have complied some other indices of useful resources here at my LvMI blog:
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2007/12/29/environmental-markets-links-to-austrians.aspx (libertarian thinking)
Legal resources on state-created #LtdLiability for shareholders,consequences+reform -TT’s Lost in Tokyo http://bit.ly/erJKzd
Some of my writings on #LtdLiability for shareholders as the Original Sin: TT’s Lost in Tokyo http://bit.ly/gktO1B
Just for fun: Towards a productive libertarian approach on climate, energy+envtl issues – TT’s Lost in Tokyo http://bit.ly/ab3xJB
Sincerely,
TT
This was a great list.
I have read Coase, but had not encountered this work by Friedman, which is excellent.
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