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Property Rights in Land

Property rights are essential for market exchange. The definition of those rights, their enforcement, and their transferability all help determine the extent of trade and the rate of economic development and wealth creation.

Published on: February 20, 2013

Rent-a-green box, Fifty shades of green, and Envirofit for cleaner air

[…] and, soon, Latin America. With multiple stove types, Envirofit strives to customize products that meet the needsย of consumers worldwide. Envirofit also takes manufacturing to local markets, with plants in China and India and new developments starting in Kenya and Ghana. Staying aware of market behavior is key for the company to ensure that products […]

Published on: February 7, 2013

The Fracking Revolution

[…] 2012), however, the chances are negligible that fracking would prompt an earthquake of a magnitude that would harm humans or property. Air pollution and greenhouse gasesโ€”Coal-fired power plants are a major source of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. Compared to coal, burning natural gas generates only 20 percent as much […]

Published on: February 7, 2013

Ecology or Economics: Which has done more for our environmental future?

[…] Extrapolate global average GDP per capita into the future and it shows a rapid rise to the end of this century, when the average person on the planet would have an income at least twice as high as the typical American has today. If this were to happen, an economist would likely say that […]

Published on: February 7, 2013

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure

[…] is a better fit to local institutions that could not be intuitedย a priori. Harfordโ€™s point is not that we cannot improve institutions, but that, as the central planner Chairman Mao said (but did not practice), we should let 1,000 flowers bloom so we find out what works. Man-made climate change may be upon us […]

Published on: February 7, 2013

Econ-Pragmatists and Eco-Pragmatists Unite

[…] of assigning a cap on carbon emissions or determining the โ€œoptimal tax.โ€ This and hundreds more, are examplesย of Coaseโ€™s criticism and indeed have been the focus of free market environmentalism since its inception in the 1980s. Blackboard environmental economicsย ignores โ€œthe influences of society, history, culture, and politics on the working of the ,โ€ to […]

Published on: February 7, 2013

The Nature of Nature and Humanity’s Place in It

[…] fire, storms, and population dynamics see to it that nature is always changing.โ€ Humans have lived in Australia for 50,000 years. โ€œAborigines increased the amount of flammable plant material. This, combined with their fire- setting ways, may have changed the dominant species in many parts of the country,โ€ says Marris. She quotes one authority […]

Published on: February 7, 2013