HAYEK, COASE, AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
March 14-17, 2013
Aspen Wye River Marriott Conference Center, Queenstown, Maryland
Directed by: Reed Watson
This colloquium, co-sponsored with Liberty Fund, will discuss with environmental leaders and environmental entrepreneurs the role that markets play in linking human action to the value of “ecosystem services.” In the vocabulary of environmentalism, ecosystem services are the environmental processes that support our society by providing clean air and water, decomposing waste, pollinating flowers, regulating climate and by supplying a host of other benefits. Ecosystem services are created by the interactions of living organisms with their environment, and they are the subject of much of twenty-first century literature on the environment. Yet, with rare exception, ecosystem services are neither priced by markets nor explicitly protected by the law. Environmentalists frequently refer to the societal value of ecosystem services, but they have largely ignored the important role that prices and property rights play in revealing that value.
By juxtaposing the writings of Friedrich Hayek and Ronald Coase in addition to other classical liberal writings with environmental literature on the value of ecosystem services, we hope to expose environmental leaders and environmental entrepreneurs to the importance of markets in the provision of ecosystem services.
This event is closed to the public.
