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Economics for Health and the Environment
Publications
| Researchers
The environmental,
health, and safety regulations enacted in the past thirty
years, some of our society's proudest accomplishments,
are under siege today. An economic critique of traditional
regulation, which was gaining strength in the 1990s,
has become increasingly influential in policy-making.
GDAE's program
in Economics for Health and the Environment addresses
the need expressed by advocates for responses to cost-benefit
analysis and anti-environmental economic arguments.
Our projects are designed to help build the capabilities
of environmental organizations to respond to anti-environmental
arguments couched in economic terms. Our work demonstrates
the weakness of the new anti-environmental economics,
in theory and in practice, and contributes to the growing
body of affirmative economics supporting precautionary
approaches to public policy.
Program Areas of Focus:
Health
and Environment Publications
(To get notified of new GDAE publications, click here)
Poisoned for Pennies: The Economics of Toxics and Precaution, by Frank Ackerman, Island Press,
2008. This book shows how the misuse of cost-benefit analysis is impeding efforts to clean up and protect our environment, especially in the case of toxic chemicals.
"The Economics of Atrazine," by Frank Ackerman; International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, volume 13 no. 4, (Oct-Dec 2007), pp.441-449.
“European Chemical Policy and the United States: The Impacts of REACH,” by Frank Ackerman, Liz Stanton, and Rachel Massey. September, 2006.
Can Climate Change Save Lives? A comment on “Economy-wide estimates of the implications of climate change: Human health,” by Frank Ackerman and Liz Stanton. September 2006.
"Implications of REACH for the Developing Countries," by Frank Ackerman (principal author), Liz Stanton, Rachel Massey, Brian Roach, and others; report from the International Chemical Secretariat (Chemsec) to the European Parliament. March, 2006. Also available in French: "Les Implications De Reach Pour Les Pays En Développement"
"The
Unbearable Lightness of Regulatory Costs,"
by Frank Ackerman. February, 2006.
"French
Industry and Sustainable Chemistry: The Benefits of
Clean Development," by Frank Ackerman
and Rachel Massey, October 2005. Also available translated
into French: "Industrie
Française Et Chimie Durable : Les Bénéfices
Du Développement Propre"
"Building
a Healthy Economy: Chemicals Risk Management as a Driver
of Development," by Rachel Massey,
report for the Swedish Chemicals Inspectorate, September
2005.
"The
Ripple Effect", by Frank Ackerman,
an op-ed article about REACH published in Parliament
Magazine, a magazine from Brussels (in English),
April 2005.
"Surviving
REACH: A Guide for Companies that Use Chemicals",
by Rachel Massey, The International Chemical Secretariat
(Chemsec), March 2005. Also available in German [link
to German version].
"The
True Costs of REACH", by Frank Ackerman
and Rachel Massey, Nordic Council of Ministers, December
2004.
Priceless:
On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of
Nothing,
by Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling, The New Press,
2004. This book critiques the arguments used to justify
the current attacks on health, safety, and the environment.
"Morality,
Cost-Benefit, and the Price of Life",
by Frank Ackerman, The Environmental Law Institute,
2004. Reprinted by Permission from The Environmental
Forum, September/October, 2004.
"Organic
Turf Management at Tufts"
by Shannon Nally with Rachel Massey, Caleb
McClennen, and Dina Dubson. A project of the Tufts Institute
for the Environment (TIE) and the Global Development
and Environment Institute (GDAE), September 2004.
"Applying
Cost-Benefit Analysis to Past Decision: Was Protecting
the Environment Ever a Good Idea?", by
Frank Ackerman, Lisa Heinzerling, and Rachel Massey,
Center for Progressive Regulation White Paper
#401, July 2004.
"Flimsy
Firewalls: The Continuing Triumph of Efficiency over
Safety in Regulating Mad Cow Risks", by
Thomas O. McGarity with Frank Ackerman, a report from
the Center for Progressive Regulation, July 2004.
"The
Outer Bounds of the Possible: Economic Theory, Precaution,
and Dioxin", by Frank
Ackerman. In this paper, given at the Dioxin
2003 conference, Frank Ackerman explores the economic
rationale for the precautionary principle, and sketches
the application of the theory to policy toward dioxin.
2003.
"The
Economics of Phasing Out PVC", by
Frank Ackerman
and Rachel Massey. An in-depth analysis of the
economics of phasing out polyvinyl chloride (PVC) finds
that good substitutes are available for countless PVC
products; contrary to widespread fears, the costs of
a phaseout will be modest. December 2003.
"Costs
of Preventable Childhood Illness: The Price We Pay for
Pollution", by Rachel Massey and Frank
Ackerman. Global Development and Environment Institute
Working Paper 03-09, September 2003.
"Prospering
with Precaution", by Frank Ackerman and
Rachel Massey. In this commissioned report for the Massachusetts-based
Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, the authors argue that
implementing the precautionary principle is not just
good science, it is also good economics. (Report published
August 2002.)
Pricing
the Priceless: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Environmental
Regulation, by Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling,
published by the Environmental Law and Policy Institute
of the Georgetown University Law Center, 2002.
"Alternatives
to PVC: An Economic Analysis," by Frank
Ackerman, presentation delivered at the U.S. Green Building
Conference in Austin, Texas, November 2002.
Comments
to EPA on Power Plant Regulations: GDAE
submitted two sets of comments to the US Environmental
Protection Agency on its cost-benefit analysis of regulating
power plant cooling water intake systems. (August
2002 comments; June
2003 comments.)
"Uses
and Abuses of Economic Analysis in Setting Stormwater
Regulations", Comments by Frank Ackerman
on EPA's proposal to regulate stormwater runoff from
construction and development sites.
"Tree
Huggers No Longer!" by Frank Ackerman, a review
of Bjorn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring
the State of the Real World, as it appeared in The Nation,
March 25, 2002.
"High
Risk Economics: Gambling on Cost-Benefit Analysis for
Arsenic Standards." Comments submitted to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, August 2000.
"Getting
the Prices Wrong: The Limits of Market-Based Environmental
Policy."Frank Ackerman and Kevin Gallagher,
GDAE Working Paper 00-05. October 2000.
"The
Billion-Dollar Bonus", by Kayo Tajima and
Frank Ackerman, op-ed article from The Boston Globe
on the value of creating open spaces following
major highway project.
Researchers
Frank
Ackerman, GDAE Research Director: His current
research interests include the economics of climate
change, energy, materials and waste, and the relationship
between trade and the environment. He has been a co-founder
and editor of Dollars
& Sense magazine, and has studied
the economics of energy and environmental policy at
Tellus Institute in Boston. He is a member of the Center
for Progressive Regulation. He is the co-author of Priceless:
On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of
Nothing, the author of
Why
Do We Recycle? Markets, Values, and Public Policy,
and co-editor of several books in GDAE's Frontier
Issues in Economic Thought book series, including
The Changing Nature of Work and The Political
Economy of Inequality. He holds
a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
(see
full list of publications by Frank Ackerman)
Rachel
Massey, research associate with GDAE's
program in Economics for Health and the Environment,
holds a Master's degree in Public Affairs from Princeton
University's Woodrow Wilson School and a Master's degree
in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University.
She has worked as a researcher, writer, and editor for
environmental organizations including Environmental
Research Foundation, Pesticide Action Network, and the
Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies
at Hampshire College. She has published articles on
a variety of health and environment topics, ranging
from health and developmental effects of toxic exposures
through genetic engineering in agriculture. Her article
on health and environmental implications of US support
for the "war on drugs" in Colombia won a 2003
Project Censored award for top stories underreported
in the mainstream media.
(see
full list of publications by Rachel Massey)
Kevin
Gallagher is currently a Research Associate
for the institute’s Research and Policy Program,
and an assistant professor of international economics
in the Department of International Relations at Boston
University. Gallagher serves as GDAE’s principal
investigator for the Globalization and Sustainable Development
Program. His current research focuses on the economics
and politics of economic integration in the Western
Hemisphere, particularly in relation to industrial development
in Mexico. He is the author of Free Trade and the
Environment: Mexico, NAFTA, and Beyond. He has
presented his work at the WTO, World Bank, OECD, ECLAC,
the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and at
other international conferences on trade and investment
policy, economic development, and the environment. He
is also the co-editor of International Trade and
Sustainable Development (with Jacob Werksman).
Gallagher holds a Ph.D. in International Political Economy
and a M.A. in International Environmental Policy from
Tufts.
Liz Stanton, is a Researcher with GDAE’s Research and Policy Program whose interests include the economics of environmental policy, and the relationship between inequality and human well-being. She holds a M.A. in economics from New Mexico State University and is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is the author of Environment for the People, with James K. Boyce, and the editor of Reclaiming Nature: Worldwide Strategies for Building Natural Assets, with James K. Boyce and Sunita Narain. She is also the former Program Director of the Center for Popular Economics, based in Amherst-Massachusetts.
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