NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
October 2005
Global Challenges: Furthering The Multilateral Process for Sustainable Development
Book
Taking a uniquely broad outlook and interdisciplinary approach, this book examines the challenges facing the global policy process for sustainable development as it continues beyond Johannesburg into the future.
2005
Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms
Book
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, Bruce L. Hay and Richard H. K. Vietor, Steering Committee Member, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
| Everyone agrees that firms should obey the law. But beyond what the law requires—beyond bare compliance with regulations—do firms have additional social responsibilities to commit resources voluntarily to environmental protection? How should we think about firms sacrificing profits in the social interest? Are they permitted to do so, given their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders? Even if permissible, is the practice sustainable, or will the competitive marketplace render such efforts and their impacts transient at best? Furthermore, is the practice, however well intended, an efficient use of social and economic resources? And, as an empirical matter, to what extent do firms already behave this way? | ||
| Until now, public discussion has generated more heat than light on both the normative and positive questions surrounding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the environmental realm. In Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms, some of the nation’s leading scholars in law, economics, and business examine commonly accepted assumptions at the heart of current debates on corporate social responsibility and provide a foundation for future research and policymaking. |
2005
Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings
Book
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
Over four editions, Economics of the Environment has established itself as the standard student reader for environmental economics courses. A rich complement to other texts, this accessible reader provides a balanced selection of classic and contemporary readings to firmly ground students’ understanding in the field’s primary literature. The Fifth Edition has been carefully reorganized; over a third of the selections are new.
December 30, 2004
Political Economy of Environmental Regulation
Book
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation is a new authoritative collection comprised of previously published papers: economic analyses of the processes through which political decisions regarding environmental regulation are made, principally in the institutional context found in the United States. Despite this geographic focus, many of the papers contain analytical models that are methodologically of interest and/or have lessons that are relevant in other parts of the world.
In the environmental realm, questions of political economy emerge along three fundamental dimensions, which are closely interrelated but conceptually distinct: (1) the degrees of government activity; (2) the form of government activity; and (3) the level of government that has responsibility. The first three parts of the book deal respectively with these three fundamental dimensions of inquiry. The fourth part of the book examines the use of economic analysis in contemporary environmental policy.
The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation will be of significant interest to environmental scholars, students and policy makers alike.
