Environmental Values Environmental Values
Environmental Values 17(2008): 239-257. doi: 10.3197/096327108X303873
ABSTRACT
The productive services of nature, such as the ability of fertile soil to grow crops, receive low market prices not because markets fail but because many natural resources, such as good cropland, are abundant relative to effective demand. Even when one pays nothing for a service such as that the wind provides in pollinating crops, this is its 'correct' market price if the supply is adequate and free. The paper argues that ecological services are either too 'lumpy' to price in incremental units (for example, climatic systems), priced competitively, or too cheap to meter. The paper considers counter-examples and objections.
KEYWORDS
Ecosystems, valuation, economics
CITATIONS in other Environmental Values articles
Value Theory in Ecological Economics: The Contribution of a Political Economy of Wealth. Ali Douai
Ecosystem Services and Sacred Natural Sites: Reconciling Material and Non-material Values in Nature Conservation.Shonil A. Bhagwat
Download full text (PDF format) from IngentaConnect. Access is free if your institution subscribes to Environmental Values.
Subscriptions and back numbers of Environmental Values.
Other papers in this volume
THE WHITE HORSE PRESS
1 Strond
ISLE OF HARRIS HS5 3UD, UK
Tel: +44 1859 520204