Economic Development and Environmental Protection : Economic Pursuit of Quality.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Preface to the New Edition -- Preface to the Original Edition -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter One: The Power and Mystique of Economics: Sharing the Power, Eliminating the Magic -- 1. The Misdefinition of Economics -- 2. The Power of Economics -- 3. The Distribution of the Power of Economics -- 4. The Historical Origins of the Power of Economics -- 5. Rejecting the Equation of Economics with Markets and Business -- 6. An Accurate and Adequate Definition of Economics -- 7. The Role of Quality and Subjective Judgment in Economics -- 8. When Is Quality Economic? Market and Nonmarket Pursuits of Quality -- 9. How We Look at the Local Economy: The "Economic Base" as a Distracting Vision -- 10. A Broader Vision of the Economic Base: Local Quality -- 11. Does It Matter Anyway? The Policy Implications of This Alternative Vision -- Chapter Two: The Dominance of Quality in Economic Pursuits: Survival Needs, Food, and Health Care -- 1. Introduction: Necessity and Quality in Economics -- 2. The Economic Pursuit of Quality: An Impressionistic Overview -- 3. Food as a Necessity in Our Economy -- 4. Subjective Preferences and the Pursuit of Quality in Medical Care -- Chapter Three: The Dominance of Quality in Economic Pursuits, Continued: Clothing, Housing, and Stone Age Economics -- 1. Protection from the Elements: Clothing Expenditures and the Pursuit of Necessity -- 2. Necessary Housing Expenditures -- 3. Necessary Survival Expenditures: A Summary -- 4. Survival and Necessity in More Primitive Societies -- 5. The Dominance of the Subjective and the Qualitative in Determining Economic Productivity -- 6. Our Perceptions of Economic Necessity and Survival -- 7. Conclusions -- Chapter Four: The Economic Pursuit of Quality in a Noncommercial Setting -- 1. Introduction.

2. Commercial versus Noncommercial Economic Activity -- 3. The Private Economic Pursuit of Environmental Quality -- 4. The Absence of Information and Control -- 5. Measuring the Value of Environmental Qualities -- Chapter Five: Profaning the Sacred? Economic Valuation of the Natural Environment -- 1. An Intrusion of the Commercial Mentality or the Development of Social Rationality? -- 2. What Is an "Economic Value"? -- 3. The Dangers of Economic Valuation -- Chapter Six: Beauty and the Beast: Quantitative Evidence on the Economic Importance of Environmental Quality -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Beauty: The Economic Value of Visual Quality -- 3. The Beast: The Economic Cost of Sickness. Crime, and Death -- 4. Conclusion -- Chapter Seven: The Economic Base: Distracting Vision, Distorting Reality -- 1. Economic Development and the Pursuit of Quality -- 2. Simplifying Economic Reality -- 3. The Economic Base: An Overview -- 4. An Approach as Old as Economics -- 5. The Economic-Base Model -- 6. Local Economic Development versus Export Growth -- 7. The Economic-Base Model as a Model of Short-Run Economic Shocks -- 8. Who Is Pushing Whom? Causality and the Economic Base -- 9. Defining the Economic Base -- 10. A Distorted Vision -- 11. Intellectual Inertia and Ideology -- 12. A Theory of Nondevelopment: Instability and Dependence -- 13. The Real Economic Base: Local Quality and Economic Development -- Chapter Eight: Economic Growth and Local Economic Well-Being -- 1. Introduction: The Strategies for Growth -- 2. The Objectives and Measures of Economic Growth -- 3. Quantitative Growth and Economic Well-Being: The Missing Connection -- 4. Lower Per Capita Incomes as an Indicator of Superior Well-Being -- 5. People Care Where They Live: Preferences for Living Environments.

6. Differences in Location-Specific Qualities Are the Dominant Explanation for Regional Differences in Wages -- 7. In a Mobile Economy, No Region Can Be Significantly Better or Worse Off -- Chapter Nine: The Self-Defeating Strategies of Quantitative Growth -- 1. Introduction -- 2. More High-Paying Jobs Are Unlikely to Boost Local Per Capita Income -- 3. Expanding Local Employment Opportunities Will Not Necessarily Put the Unemployed There to Work -- 4. Creating More Jobs Will Not Keep the Kids at Home -- 5. Economic Growth Is Unlikely to Reduce Tax Burdens -- 6. Taxes and Local Economic Growth: Competing Away the Benefits of Growth -- 7. Conclusion: Attaining the Objectives of Quantitative Growth -- Chapter Ten: The Local Pursuit of Quality: A "Can't-Lose" Economic-Development Strategy -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Goals: What Is It We Want from the Economy? -- 3. Modesty as an Economic Virtue: The Importance of Respecting the Limits to Local Economic Policy -- 4. A "Can't-Lose" Economic-Development Strategy: Supporting Local Enterprise -- 5. A "Can't-Lose" Economic-Development Strategy: Improving the Quality of Public Goods and Services -- 6. "Can't-Lose" versus "No Free Lunch -- Chapter Eleven: Grander Visions, Grander Problems -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Dominance of Markets and the Prevalence of Market Failure -- 3. Economic Instability: Cycles of Boom and Depression -- 4. The Consequences of Powerlessness: The Emphasis on Commercial Goods -- 5. The Treadmill of Competitive Consumption -- 6. The Undirected Economy: The Antirationality of Conventional Economics -- 7. The Amorality of Economic Analysis and the Market Economy -- 8. Grander Visions -- 9. Putting the Pieces Together -- References -- Index -- About the Author.

This text takes issue with the notion that economic well-being of people derives only from quantitatively expanding commercial business activity. It argues that economic qualities flow from the natural and social environment, and that they are public, not private, in character.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.