scholarly journals Applying and assessing free market environmentalism to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s coltan resources: Challenges and possibilities

SURG Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Benjamin Baena ◽  
Amy Bronson ◽  
Tobias Jones ◽  
Lindsey Champaigne
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Effective Property ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Market Environmentalism

Coltan is the commonly used term for tantalum, a metal used in electronics, when sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This article considers that a “resource curse,” where a resource-rich country paradoxically experiences low social and economic development, is occurring in the DRC with respect to this mineral. The school of economic thought known as free market environmentalism broadly prescribes free markets, individual property rights, and common-law liability as the incentives to reduce environmental problems. While it is a less-common and sometimes controversial perspective on solving environmental problems, an analysis of a free market environmentalist perspective of coltan mining in the DRC provides alternative perspectives on solving a “resource curse,” such as effective property rights as put forward by Moriss (2009). Considering the practicality of implementing free market environmentalist principles in a war-torn country with weak governance, this article theorizes that the Congolese government could respond to the recent Congo Conflict Minerals Act within the American Dodd-Frank Act (2010) by implementing licenses to mine coltan resources that closely resemble private property rights, drawing on Pearse (1988), in areas of the DRC less affected by conflict. Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo; coltan; tantalum; mining; free market environmentalism; property rights (privatization of)

scholarly journals Tropical Deforestation: Can Property Rights Stem the Tide?

SURG Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Daniel Bayley
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Tropical Deforestation ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Effective Form ◽  
Tropical Forest Management ◽  
Market Environmentalism

In this report the property right structures surrounding tropical forest management are analyzed with a specific case study presented on tropical forests in Honduras. In order to adequately understand the set of property rights in place surrounding tropical forests, the applicable sets of property rights are laid out and explained (private, common, state, and open access). It is argued that the current property rights regimes in place surrounding tropical forests are inadequate and are the issue leading to high levels of deforestation. Conflicts and controversies surrounding the issue are presented for a counterargument and separate view of the issue. It was found that the current property rights regime in Honduras is inadequate for effective resource management as it lacks enforceability along with structure and is the prominent issue surrounding tropical deforestation. Private property rights were the most effective form of property rights found for maintaining natural resources, and it is therefore recommended that private ownership be instilled upon tropical forests to reduce the rate of deforestation. Free Market Environmentalism (FME) is offered as a solution to the current methodology for the management of tropical forests, as it advocates for private ownership and an enforceable set of rights. Therefore, it is recommended that a private property rights regime following the FME methodology replace existing state property rights in order to stem the tide of tropical deforestation.

scholarly journals Too many boats chasing too few fish: The collapse of the Atlantic groundfish fishery and the avoidance of future collapses through free market environmentalism

SURG Journal ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Atlantic Cod ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Individual Transferable Quotas ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Cod Fisheries ◽  
Market Environmentalism ◽  
Groundfish Fishery

On July 2, 1992 Canada’s fisheries minister banned cod fishing off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and off the southern coast of Labrador. Overestimated cod stocks creating exaggerated Total Allowable Catches, coupled with increased fishing capacity, lead to the depletion of the Atlantic cod fisheries. This crisis occurred in the context of strong government policy and management. The Atlantic cod and groundfish fisheries have yet to recover from this travesty of mismanagement. The state of the world’s fisheries faces the same dismal fate as the Atlantic groundfish fishery, suffering from what has become known as the tragedy of the commons. Establishing private property rights using methods such as individual transferable quotas is occurring in several parts of the world to avoid the tragedy of depleted fish stocks. Well defined property rights, through the implementation of individual transferable quotas, ensure that fisheries internalize the cost and benefits of management decisions. Individual transferable fishing quotas have proven effective to increase conservation efforts and reduce overcapacity, which is often produced with increased legislation. Individual transferable quotas are not only a viable solution for reducing overfishing and preventing stock collapses, but the best solution available.

scholarly journals A Free-Market Environmentalist Transition toward Renewable Energy: The Cases of Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4659
Author(s):  
William Hongsong Wang ◽  
Vicente Moreno-Casas ◽  
Jesús Huerta de Soto
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Free Market ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Market Environmentalism ◽  
The Uk

Renewable energy (RE) is one of the most popular public policy orientations worldwide. Compared to some other countries and continents, Europe has gained an early awareness of energy and environmental problems in general. At the theoretical level, free-market environmentalism indicates that based on the principle of private property rights, with fewer state interventionist and regulation policies, entrepreneurs, as the driving force of the market economy, can provide better services to meet the necessity of offering RE to protect the environment more effectively. Previous studies have revealed that Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have made some progress in using the market to develop RE. However, this research did not analyze the three countries’ RE conditions from the perspective of free-market environmentalism. Based on our review of the principles of free-market environmentalism, this paper originally provides an empirical study of how Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have partly conducted free-market-oriented policies to successfully achieve their policy goal of RE since the 1990s on a practical level. In particular, compared with Germany and Denmark, the UK has maintained a relatively low energy tax rate and opted for more pro-market measures since the Hayekian-Thatcherism free-market reform of 1979. The paper also discovers that Fredrich A. Hayek’s theories have strongly impacted its energy liberalization reform agenda since then. Low taxes on the energy industry and electricity have alleviated the burden on the electricity enterprises and consumers in the UK. Moreover, the empirical results above show that the energy enterprises play essential roles in providing better and more affordable RE for household and industrial users in the three sampled countries. Based on the above results, the paper also warns that state intervention policies such as taxation, state subsidies, and industrial access restrictions can impede these three countries’ RE targets. Additionally, our research provides reform agendas and policy suggestions to policymakers on the importance of implementing free-market environmentalism to provide more efficient RE in the post-COVID-19 era.

scholarly journals TAKING PROPERTY RIGHTS SERIOUSLY: THE CASE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan H. Adler
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Market Environmentalism ◽  
Developed Nations

The dominant approach to environmental policy endorsed by conservative and libertarian policy thinkers, so-called “free market environmentalism” (FME), is grounded in the recognition and protection of property rights in environmental resources. Despite this normative commitment to property rights, most self-described FME advocates adopt a utilitarian, welfare-maximization approach to climate change policy, arguing that the costs of mitigation measures could outweigh the costs of climate change itself. Yet even if anthropogenic climate change is decidedly less than catastrophic, human-induced climate change is likely to contribute to environmental changes that violate traditional conceptions of property rights. Viewed globally, the actions of some countries—primarily industrialized nations—are likely to increase environmental harms suffered by other countries—less developed nations that have not (as of yet) made any significant contribution to climate change. It may well be that aggregate human welfare would be maximized in a warmer, wealthier world, or that the gains from climate change will offset environmental losses. Yet such claims, even if demonstrated, would not address the normative concern that the consequences of anthropogenic global warming would infringe upon the rights of people in less-developed nations. As a consequence, this paper calls for a rethinking of FME approaches to climate change policy.

scholarly journals Free market for the environment

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-125 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Government Regulation ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Market Price ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Free Market Price ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
Market Environmentalism

The tragedy of the commons is responsible for many, if not all, of the environmental problems concerning natural resource preservation that we face in modern society. The tragedy of the commons describes a situation in which resources held “in common”, namely, public resources, are depleted or mistreated by collective action. Basically it means lack of private ownership and almost inevitably leads to a misallocation of resources. And yet, the predominating kinds of solutions proposed to solve these problems involve increased government regulation—effectively expanding the scope of the very tragedy of the commons which lies at the heart of the problem in the first place. The present paper advocates an alternative: free market environmentalism. It is not a contradiction in terms, despite how that phrase sounds to the modern ear. In this paper we attempt to demonstrate that laissez-faire capitalism is our last best hope for protecting the environment. Free market environmentalism centers around private property rights and thus a decentralization of environmental decision-making. Effective choices made about scarce resources must be based upon free market price signals and incentives. The lack of laissez-faire capitalism applied to earth’s natural resources distorts both of these indicators—causing poorly made and oftentimes destructive decisions. A free market solution to the environment creates the most value for society, allows for open and continuous entrepreneurial innovation, and economically empowers those who are the most environmentally vulnerable.

scholarly journals The Evolution of Individual Property Rights in Massachusetts Agriculture, 17th–19th Centuries

1985 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry C. Field
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Complex Mixtures ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Institutional Adaptation ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
Economic Studies

Economic studies of changes in property rights institutions have been hampered by the use of ideal types. Conceptually we usually identify a small number of discrete property rights regimes, e.g., “open-access,” “common property” and “private property,” and then try to comprehend our data in terms of these categories. But in the so-called real world ideal types are seldom encountered. Instead we usually see complex mixtures of assorted arrangements, all growing or declining or mixing or separating at different rates and in different directions. Models containing nothing but ideal-type concepts are ill-suited to the analysis of such a reality. In this paper I want to examine a case of institutional change where one institutional regime was transformed into another; not by a discrete jump from one system to another, but through a gradual process of institutional adaptation and transition.

scholarly journals Freshwater scarcity and pricing in South Africa: conflicts between conservation and equity in the post-apartheid state

SURG Journal ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-50
Author(s):  
Liane Langstaff
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Freshwater Resources ◽  
Market Environmentalism ◽  
Distributional Fairness ◽  
The Impact

South Africa faces water scarcity due to the contribution of climatic, geographic, and human variables. As reported by Statistics South Africa, persistent water scarcity and distributional inequity has arisen in a changing political arena from the period of colonization to the most recent chapter of South African governance from 1994 onwards [1]. In the policy context of a state struggling with the legacy of apartheid, conflicts regarding the pricing of freshwater resources have arisen [2]. With discrepancies between the higher price for water required to promote efficiency and conservation, and the alternative pricing system that would meet the South Africa’s responsibility to improve distributional fairness, the most recent challenges took place between 1994 and 2000 [3]. Consequently, the predominant problem linked to South Africa’s freshwater resources is how to allocate water amongst the competing uses of long term environmental and human welfare, without compromising the needs of the country’s urban poor. One perspective, which can provide insight on the issue of water scarcity in South Africa, is free market environmentalism. This branch of economic thought supports a system of water markets with prices that reflect the true cost of providing the resources along with subsidies to address the needs of the poor. Based on an evaluation of the impact of market incentives in South Africa since the 2001 market reforms, it has been determined that a pragmatic, free market environmentalist approach to water can yield economically efficient outcomes for the resource while mitigating distributional equity issues.

scholarly journals Privatization in economic theory

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Drakic
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Equilibrium Models ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
Private Property Rights

In reality privatization has never occurred according to the handbook rules of ordinary market transactions. Not even in advanced market economies can privatization transactions be described by the Walrasian or Arrowian, or Leontiefian equilibrium models, or by the equilibrium models of the game theory. In these economies transactions of privatization take place in a fairly organic way ? which means that those are driven by the dominance of private property rights and in a market economy. But despite this fact Western privatization also some peculiar features as compared to ordinary company takeovers, since the state as the seller may pursue non ? economic goals. Changes in the dominant form of property change positions and status of many individuals and groups in the society. That?s why privatization can even less be explained by ordinary market mechanisms in transition countries where privatizing state-owned property have happened in a mass scale and where markets and private property rights weren't established at the time process of privatization began. In this paper I?ll discuss and analyze the phenomenon of privatization in context of different economic theories arguing that empirical results go in favor of the public choice theory (Buchanan, 1978), theory of "economic constitution" (Brennan and Buchanan 1985), (Buchanan and Tullock, 1989), and theory of "collective action" (Olson, 1982). These theories argues that transition from one economic system into another, for example transition from collectivistic, socialistic system into capitalism and free market economy with dominant private property, will not happen through isolated changes of only few economic institutions, no matter how deep that changes would be. In other words privatization can not give results if it's not followed by comprehensive change of economic system because privatized companied wouldn't be able to operate in old environment.

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