Preface -- Visions of the future -- The economic approach : property rights, externalities, and environmental problems -- Evaluating trade-offs : benefit-cost analysis and other decision-making metrics -- Valuing the environment : methods -- Dynamic efficiency and sustainable development --...

"The Bet uses a legendary wager between the Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and the conservative University of Illinois economist Julian Simon to examine the roots of modern environmentalism and its relationship to broader political conflicts in the nation. Ehrlich, author of the landmark 1968...