Review by Choice Review
Hahnel, an academic economist, is concerned that "every theoretical framework for analyzing the relations between our economic activities and the natural environment remains incomplete and flawed.. In this volume, he does not aim to provide an alternative framework, but rather to present the dominant frameworks from "mainstream" economics, e.g., cost-benefit analysis, economic growth, and the Coase theorem, along with a discussion of their limitations. Overall, the volume offers a good review and critique of neoclassical methods. Its primary weakness is that the references are out-of-date. Academic environmental economics has come a long way since the days of Adam Smith, and there has been significant work in institutional, behavioral, and bioeconomics, as well as interdisciplinary work that is pushing the boundaries of "mainstream" environmental economics. Omitting references to this literature gives an incomplete view of current research in the field. The most valuable contribution of this book is the section on climate change, which details the history of international climate negotiations; an exercise on climate change treaties can be implemented in the classroom. Summing Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate collections. A. M. Chaudhry California State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
