Environment, Inequality and Collective Action

Efficiency is the hallmark of environmental economics. Economists are concerned with the environment primarily because it challenges the efficiency of competitive markets. Yet limited attention has been paid to distributional issues. The essays in this volume identify and address the main issues in the inequality-environment relationship, issues such as: Does increasing economic inequality lead to better or worse environmental quality? Which individual or social features play a role in determining the differentiated impact of changes in the environment? What impact does economic inequality or social segmentation have on collective action? How important is the complex economic and social institution in which the inequality-environment takes place? This book will prove essential to economists with an interest in the environment and will be useful to readers with a more general environmental studies background.