The theory of environmental policy / William J. Baumol, Wallace E. Oates ; with contributions by V.S. Bawa and David F. Bradford.

In this book, Professors Baumol and Oates provide a rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the economic theory of environmental policy. They present a formal, theoretical treatment of those factors influencing the quality of life. By covering both the theory of externalities and its application to environmental policy, the authors have retained the basic structure and organization of the first edition, which has become a standard reference in the field. In this edition, however, they have updated their analysis to incorporate recent research in environmental economics.

Part I. On The Theory of Externalities: 1. Introduction: economic and environmental policy 2. Relevance and the theory of externalities 3. Externalities: definition, significant types, and optimal-pricing conditions 4. Externalities: formal analysis 5. Uncertainty and the choice of policy instruments: price or quantity controls? 6. Market imperfections and the number of participants 7. Are competitive outputs with detrimental externalities necessarily excessive? 8. Detrimental externalities and nonconvexities in the production set 9. On optimal pricing of exhaustible resources; Part II. On The Design of Environmental Policy 10. Introduction to Part II; 11. Efficiency without optimality: the charges and standards approach 12. Marketable emission permits for protection of the environment 13. Stochastic influences, direct controls, and taxes 14. Taxes versus subsidies: a partial analysis 15. Environmental protection and the distribution of income 16. International environmental issues 17. national or local standards for environmental quality

Includes bibliographical references and index.