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Target Readership	Sen. Secondary					For help with criteria, click here
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Contents:

1 - Why study economics?; 2 - The fundamental vision; 3 - Ends, means and policy; 4 - The nature of resources and the resources of nature; 5 - Abiotic resources; 6 - Biotic resources; 7 - From empty world to full world; 8 - The basic market equation; 9 - Supply and demand; 10 - Market failures; 11 - Market failures and abiotic resources; 12 - Market failures and biotic resources; 13 - Macroeconomic concepts: GNP and welfare; 14 - Money; 15 - Distribution; 16 - The IS-LM model; 17 - International trade; 18 - Globalisation; 19 - International flows and macroeconomic policy; 20 - General policy design principles; 21 - Sustainable scale; 22 - Just distribution; 23- Efficiency allocation.

Review:

The growth of ecological and environmental concerns in economics is growing faster than many other aspects of the subject. Many leading global companies are now subscribing to measures of environmental efficiency and the 'triple-bottom line' reporting system (economic, social and environmental) is becoming a part of many annual reports. By the same token, environmental economics is becoming and important part of the discipline. However, most texts see this as a way of bringing conventional economic principles to bear on environmental problems. This text aims to show how we can have a different version of economics - one focussed on a more sustainable way of life.

The book is divided into six parts. The first part looks at the basic ideas behind the author's view of environmental economics. Of the three chapters in this part, the first deals with the nature of economics and the rationale behind this book. Here, we see environmental economics not as a part of, but as an extension of conventional neoclassical economic theory: economics should not be driven by monetary concerns but by a desire for a sustainable society and just distribution. Chapter two continues this with a more detailed look at the fundamentals behind this economic theory: the increase in marginal costs compared with marginal utility is such as to make the current system unsustainable. Chapter three tackles a crucial point. Conventional economics is about the distribution of scarce resources but this is not always what is in shortest supply. In other words, there is a question of the nature of resources and the way in which these are to be distributed that is at the heart of his perspective. Part two looks at the nature of resources. Currently, economics functions according to the market but the new view is that it should function according to the resources available. Chapter four outlines this idea in more detail. The next two chapters show how this works in practice in terms of both abiotic and biotic resources. The former relies heavily on discussions about oil, minerals and water (three key current resources) whilst the latter focusses on ecosystem services. This is followed by chapter seven which deals with the application of economics to policies. Part three changes focus. Up to this point much of the work has had a global or even aspatial perspective. Now, the emphasis is on the firm and the small scale (and how this adds up to a larger economic picture. Thus chapters 8 and 9 look at the basic market equation and the application of supply and demand theory respectively. Much of this comes from a more conventional school of economics and is used to prepare the reader for a consideration of the issues that follow. From this we get the notion that economics is used to allocate resources via a pricing mechanism (i.e supply and demand). However, this only works if the goods can be defined within a narrow limit. Outside that limit e.g. common resources, resources without 'owners' and monopolies, conventional economics breaks down. We recognise this by having monopolies commissions set up to deliberately stop certain markets being dominated by one company. For resources outside the conventional sphere, the issue is more difficult. Chapter 10 looks at the way in which market failures can occur whilst the two subsequent chapters follow the line of earlier work by looking at failures with abiotic and biotic resources respectively. Oil is still the choice abiotic case but sustainable yields provide better examples for the biota. Part four changes scale to look at macroeconomics with its national and global focus. Conventionally, economics allocates resources at the microscale and yet, for the national systems this often fails to distribute resources evenly. Two examples of this - GNP and welfare - are the focus in chapter 13. Rather than analyse how to make them work better in conventional terms, different mechanisms are proposed. There are two other areas often associated with macroeconomics: money and distribution of wealth - the subject of the next two chapters. Having described the shortcomings of these issues in terms of environmental economics the next stage is to put forward a model which can address these issues (chapter 16). For all of these chapters, the aim is to show how we can move from neoclassical thinking to one more suited to equitable distribution of resources. Part five turns to the international arena with chapters on international trade, globalisation and policy. As we might expect by now we learn that these aspects seem to create problems by creating instability and weakening governments. Part 6 turns to the applied side by looking at how the ideas in this book can be turned into reasonable policy. The authors contend that the role of government is not to help financial policy but that it is often reduced to this. Alternatively, it could use other measures of wealth and asset distribution to create a more even society. Thus design principle and attention to scale and distribution are all necessary to provide efficient allocation of resources.

The aim of this text is not just to give an overview of conventional economics but to subject it to a series of tests whence it is found to be wanting. The answer is to apply a new set of criteria with a new economic paradigm. This in itself produces an interesting book with far less polemic than normally associated with such work. It also has, to its advantage a very clear exposition of conventional economics. This gives the reader a good grounding in both perspectives which makes it a far more useful text than otherwise could be the case. Even though a neoclassical perspective is still the dominant view, there is much to be gained from matching it with this text. With its clear and accessible style and the range of cases it uses it deserves the widest readership.