Transferable risks and the technology of environmental conflict

Abstract

Environmental and multimedia interdependencies allow one agent to protect himself by simply transferring risk across space and time to another agent. Transferable risks cause too many resources to be devoted to shifting risk and too few resources devoted to reducing it. Transferable risks also imply that the provision of information about pollution damage prevention, disparities among polluters in their abilities to influence environmental programs, and the formation of coalitions to prevent pollution damages can accentuate these excessive investments in transfer technologies. Failure to account for the interdependencies induced by transferable risk results in unintended consequences from well‐intended environmental policies.

Keywords:

• Conflict
• pollution control
• self‐protection
• strategic behavior
• transferable risk