Law Commons^™

The Four Failures Of The Political Economy, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

A contemporary policy analyst accustomed to the ways of the micro economic model might admit that the effects of certain types of environmental regulation, (the placement of hazardous waste facilities, for example) might disproportionately impact the poor because it is economically prudent to locate facilities where land is the cheapest. The harsh reality of this strategy is that poor people are more likely to live in poorer sections of the country; thus, the likelihood of being closer to such a facility is higher than that of the general populace. Thus, under this hypothesis, environmental equity is classbased and dictated by …