The paper reviews the theory of environmental taxation under first best and second best conditions. It argues that negative environmental externalities lead to reductions of the provision of public goods, while investment in abatement increases the supply of public goods. Together with optimal...

In the late 1940s, Ragnar Frisch published two articles in Norwegian that constitute a pioneering attempt to apply welfare economics to a problem of economic policy. The main contention of the articles is that there exists a fundamental externality in the labour market because the marginal...

This paper considers economists' treatment of problems related to the environment prior to the establishment of environmental economics as a separate field in the 1960s. In discussing the literature from the late 18th century onwards, it looks on the one hand for awareness in the work of the...

In the late 1940s, Ragnar Frisch published two articles in Norwegian that constitute a pioneering attempt to apply welfare economics to a problem of economic policy. The main contention of the articles is that there exists a fundamental externality in the labour market because the marginal...

This paper provides a discussion of the principles of environmental taxation. It considers the empirical identification of environmental taxes and the problems associated with the choice of the right tax base from the point of view of the correction of market incentives. It then presents a model...

This paper discusses the role that the economics of uncertainty has played in the theory of public finance. From being mostly concerned with its choice-theoretic foundations in the 1950s and ‘60s, the theory of expected utility maximization and risk averse behaviour has contributed decisively...

This paper studies the conditions for a welfare-maximizing allocation of resources to the production of global public goods, such as biodiversity, the global climate, the cultural heritage, knowledge, and world peace. A global social welfare function is maximized subject to production...

This paper is an account of the history of the attempt by Léon Walras to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1906. It describes Walras’ moves to get three of his Lausanne colleagues to nominate him for the Prize, the arguments advanced in the proposal, and the reception that it received by...

This paper considers the challenges to the field of public economics that arise from the issue of global warming. It outlines the argument for viewing the global climate as a public good and describes the problems that emerge when one tries to apply the insights of public goods theory to global...

This paper tries to convey the essence of the economic theory of behaviour of individuals and firms to an audience of non-economists. The hypotheses of utility and profit maximization and their use as building blocks in the theory of market equilibrium are explained. The paper discusses the...