The economics of nature and the nature of economics
Do global environmental improvements require “de-growth?” Are a robust economy and a healthy environment inherently at odds?
In this public lecture, Spencer Banzhaf revisits these questions through a historical lens. At the beginning of the 20th Century, any assessment of the economic value of nature would have been limited to its materialistic, instrumental ends. By the end, its aesthetic and holistic values counted in the economic calculus. As a new field of environmental economics took shape, the meaning of “environment” and “economics” changed along with it. This historical context sheds light on the place of economics in the policy space and the interdisciplinary misunderstandings that remain.
Meet our speaker and chair
Spencer Banzhaf is a professor at North Carolina State University and the director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy. In addition to his role at NCSU, he is a fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and chairs the economic advisory council of the Environmental Defense Fund. Among other publications, he is the author of Pricing the Priceless: A History of Environmental Economics (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Eric Schneider (@ericbschneider) is Professor of Economic History in the Department of Economic History at LSE. He is currently conducting research on three broad topics in the history of health and historical economic demography.
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