Oil and Water? Environmental Economics and Environmental Ethics

Abstract

It is argued that the axiomatic base of an economics determines whether the resulting economic analysis has any relevance to social choices. Unless that axiomatic basis is descriptively valid, then the analysis is irrelevant. Therefore, the ethical axiomatic and assumptions of convenience of neo-classical economics are reviewed. The results of a series of experimental studies are then discussed which suggest that the public view environmental choices as moral choices, to which they bring wider ethical concerns than self-interest.

Key words:

• Economics
• axioms
• preferences
• environment