Applied welfare economics proceeds from the assumption that preferences are fixed and independent of social context. Social psychologists and anthropologists, in contrast, interpret preferences as being strongly shaped by culture and the prevailing social norms. This viewpoint is supported by a wealth of evidence from ethnographies, social surveys, and experimental studies. Integrating theory and evidence from a range of social sciences, the authors argue that the satisfaction derived from material goods depends upon their symbolic meaning, as people use goods to reinforce a positive social identity. They further contend that this calls for the incorporation of status preferences in economic models. The book finds that concerns over social status may lead decision makers to significantly overvalue consumption and undervalue the natural environment. In addition, income and consumption taxes that are normally regarded as 'distortionary' may be necessary to address the social costs of status signalling. Based on the available evidence, the authors argue that failing to account for status preferences can lead to flawed policy prescriptions in debates over optimal taxation, the economics of climate change and Environmental Kuznets Curves. To address this bias, the book offers a tractable, operational, and theoretically grounded approach to the economics of social status. Students and scholars of ecological, environmental and resource economics will find Status, Growth and the Environment to be a highly original and fascinating read. It will also be of great relevance to anyone with an interest in applied welfare economics.

Hardbound. This volume will include scenarios of geophysical and economic impacts from global warming beyond a doubling of greenhouse gases. Analyses will examine geophysical, ecological, and economic impacts, physical and institutional lags, alternative scenarios with and without policy intervention, institutional change, political-economic barriers to effective policy, and prescriptions for change. Perspectives will include those from physical and biological sciences, as well as economics.

This book, sponsored by the Stockholm Environment Institute and first published in 1992, presents a detailed analysis of changes in world energy use over the past twenty years. It considers the future prospects of energy demand, and discusses ways of restraining growth in consumption in order to meet environmental and economic development goals. Based on a decade of research by the authors and their colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in collaboration with the Stockholm Environment Institute, it presents a wealth of information on energy use and the forces shaping it in the industrial, developing, and formerly planned economies. The book provides an invaluable overview of the potential for improving energy efficiency, and discusses the policies that could help realize the potential. While calling for strong action by governments and the private sector, the authors stress the importance of considering the full range of factors that will shape realization of the energy efficiency potential around the world.

This book focuses on the evolution of energy-using activities in a dozen industrialized countries and many developing countries as well, with particular attention paid to the energy-intensive branches of manufacturing, automobiles, air travel, home heating, and electric appliances. The authors draw scenarios of future energy efficiency improvements, based on their findings about past improvements, and their survey of the potential for change. The study concludes that only massive improvement in energy efficiency in the near and medium term can provide the world with breathing room to develop and deploy a mix of relatively clean energy sources that will not further aggravate environmental or climate problems.

This book explores the interplay between science, economics, politics, and ethics in understanding the challenge that climate change poses to the international community. A central theme is that climate change involves core issues of scientific uncertainty and intergenerational fairness that must be accounted for in the design and implementation of policy responses. Drawing together contributions from leading scholars in a variety of relevant disciplines, this volume provides a synthetic approach to this important topic that should prove valuable to a variety of readers. This series focuses on the interface between geosystems, biosystems, and the political economy. The volumes integrate physical, natural, and social sciences with economics. It encompasses the atomistic and mechanistic epistemology of modern economic analysis.