Framing Environmental Policy Instrument Choice: Another View

Abstract

"In his innovative and interesting article, Kenneth Richards endeavors to offer a framework for understanding environmental policy choices. Though it is not entirely clear from his article, it appears that Richards views his contribution as providing a better understanding of the relative merits of alternative policy mechanisms for achieving environmental goals. Specifically, he appears to view the economics literature as focusing on a rather narrow criterion, production cost-efficiency, in evaluating alternative policy mechanisms. Further, he observes that economic analysis is often used to support incentive-based policies and that the wide variety of actual policy choices made by public decision-makers suggests that a broader set of criteria are used in practice. Assuming, as Richards appears to do, that government decision-makers are motivated by social welfare maximization, these observations suggest some inherent flaw in the economics framework. This, in turn, appears to be Richards' primary rationale for developing a more comprehensive framework for analysis."