Ecological economics: principles and applications

Table of content

Acknowledgments
A Note to Instructors
Introduction

PART I. An Introduction to Ecological Economics
Chapter 1. Why Study Economics?
Chapter 2. The Fundamental Vision
Chapter 3. Ends, Means,and Policy

PART II. The Containing and Sustaining Ecosystem: The Whole
Chapter 4. The Nature of Resources and the Resources of Nature
Chapter 5. Abiotic Resources
Chapter 6. Biotic Resources
Chapter 7. From Empty World to Full World

PART III. Microeconomics
Chapter 8. The Basic Market Equation
Chapter 9. Supply and Demand
Chapter 10. Market Failures
Chapter 11. Market Failures and Abiotic Resources
Chapter 12. Market Failures and Biotic Resources
Chapter 13. Microeconomic Concepts: GNP and Welfare

PART IV. Macroeconomics
Chapter 14. Macroeconomic Concepts:GNP and Welfare
Chapter 15. Money
Chapter 16. Distribution
Chapter 17. The IS-LM Model

PART V. Internatinal Trade
Chapter 18. International Trade
Chapter 19. Globalization
Chapter 20. Financial Globalization
PART VI. Policy
Chapter 21. General Policy Design Principles
Chapter 22. Sustainable Scale
Chapter 23. Just Distribution
Chapter 24. Efficient Allocation
-Looking Ahead

Glossary
Suggested Readings
About the Authors
Index

In its first edition, this book helped to define the emerging field of ecological economics. This new edition surveys the field today. It incorporates all of the latest research findings and grounds economic inquiry in a more robust understanding of human needs and behavior. Humans and ecological systems, it argues, are inextricably bound together in complex and long-misunderstood ways.

According to ecological economists, conventional economics does not reflect adequately the value of essential factors like clean air and water, species diversity, and social and generational equity. By excluding biophysical and social systems from their analyses, many conventional economists have overlooked problems of the increasing scale of human impacts and the inequitable distribution of resources.

This introductory-level textbook is designed specifically to address this significant flaw in economic thought. The book describes a relatively new “transdiscipline” that incorporates insights from the biological, physical, and social sciences. It provides students with a foundation in traditional neoclassical economic thought, but places that foundation within an interdisciplinary framework that embraces the linkages among economic growth, environmental degradation, and social inequity. In doing so, it presents a revolutionary way of viewing the world.

The second edition of Ecological Economics provides a clear, readable, and easy-to-understand overview of a field of study that continues to grow in importance. It remains the only stand-alone textbook that offers a complete explanation of theory and practice in the discipline.