The ‘Earth summit’ and environmental economics: The case of the missing link

Abstract

While environmentalists insist that economic planning by government should pay much greater attention to the environment, they have tended to ignore environmental economics. This lapse is all the more serious because the conventional economic remedy for environmental degradation is the ‘market solution’. This article reviews the orthodox microeconomic analysis of environmental problems, assesses the shortcomings of the market solution and, in the light of this, outlines the alternative strategy for sustainable development. Some concluding comments are offered on the chances of success in implementing sustainable development in South Africa.

Notes

Department of Economics, University of Natal (Durban).

This article is based on a paper presented at the Economic History Society conference in Pietermartizburg in July 1992. A more extensive version of this article was published in the September 1992 issue of the South African Journal of Economic History and this article is printed with the permission of the editor of that Journal.