Environmental Policy Analysis for Decision Making / Edition 1

by J. Loomis, Gloria Helfand

Overview

1. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ANALYSIS: WHAT AND WHY? Why environmental policy analysis? Environmental issues are growing in visibility in local, national, and world arenas, as a myriad of human activities leads to increased impacts on the natural world. Issues such as climate change, endangered species, wilderness protection, and energy use are regularly on the front pages of newspapers. Governments at all levels are struggling with how to address these issues. Environmental policy analysis is intended to present the environmental and social impacts of policies, in the hope that better decisions will result when people have better information on which to base those decisions. Conducting environmental policy analysis requires people who understand what it is and how to do it. Interpreting it also requires those skills. We hope that this book will increase the abilities, both of analysts and of decision-makers, to understand and interpret the impacts of environmental policies. Policy analysis books almost invariably begin by pointing out that policy analysis can take many forms. This book is no different. As you will see in Chapter 1, we consider policy analysis to be information provided for the policy process. That information can take many forms, from sophisticated empirical analysis to general theoretical results, from summary statistics to game theoretic strategies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792365006
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	11/30/2001
Series:	The Economics of Non-Market Goods and Resources , #1
Edition description:	2001
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

What Is Policy Analysis, and What Is Its Role in the Policy Process?.- Scoping the Policy Analysis.- Decision Criteria and Decision Methods for Policy Analysis.- Steps in Conducting an Environmental Policy Analysis.- Modeling.- Statistical Analysis Using Regression.- Principles of Benefit-Cost Analysis.- Discounting Benefits and Costs Over Time.- Valuation of Environmental Resources and Quality.- Regional Economic Analysis, Input-Output Models and Multipliers.- Optimization and Linear Programming.- Risk Analysis.- Examples of Policy Analyses.- Concluding Guidance.

Editorial Reviews

‘...this book provides in one volume a comprehensive overview of the practical issues involved and the tools available for use in the environmental policy making arena and is particularly recommended as a text which brings to life the complex and interesting world of policy analysis.'
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 46:4 (2003)

From the Publisher