Foundations of Environmental Economics

This textbook provides a solid introduction to the theoretical and empirical aspects of environmental economics, and their links to environmental policy. It advocates drawing on the economist’s toolbox as a powerful means of finding solutions to environmental problems by addressing the conflict between the societal costs of pollution on the one hand, and the financial costs of emissions reduction on the other. The book presents the main economic theory approaches to handling environmental problems and assessing the monetary value of environmental quality; the most relevant environmental policy instruments and challenges involved in their effective real-world application; and both national and global environmental problems addressed by environmental negotiations and agreements. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable basis of information for students, and for policymakers pursuing effective environmental policies.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Buchholz studied Mathematics, Economics and Political Science at the Universities of Freiburg and Tübingen, where he got his Ph.D. in Economics in 1982 and finished his Habilitation in 1987. In 1988 he became an associate professor of economics at the University of Regensburg. After an interplay as a professor at the newly founded European University in Frankfurt (Oder) between 1992 and 1996 he returned to Regensburg – now as a full professor of public and environmental economics. Since 2002, he has also been a research professor at the ifo Institute in Munich. His main fields of research are international environmental economics, the theory of public goods, intertemporal evaluation and discounting, social protection and distribution policy and the links between economics and ethics.  Prof. Dr. Dirk T.G. Rübbelke is Professor of Economics at Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg. Before he joined Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, he was IKERBASQUE Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (2010-2014), Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo (2008-2010) and Junior Professor at Chemnitz University of Technology (2002-2008). He is also Research Associate at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, and Fellow Member in the CESifo Research Network, Munich. Prof. Rübbelke did research and taught at internationally renowned universities and research centres, such as  Australian National University in Canberra, Hebrew University Jerusalem, Jadavpur University in Kolkata, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich and University of Nottingham.