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Full-Text Articles in Law
Survey Mode Effects On Valuation Of Environmental Goods, W. Kip Viscusi, Jason Bell, Joel Huber
Survey Mode Effects On Valuation Of Environmental Goods, W. Kip Viscusi, Jason Bell, Joel Huber
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This article evaluates the effect of the choice of survey recruitment mode on the value of water quality in lakes, rivers, and streams. Four different modes are compared: bringing respondents to one central location after phone recruitment, mall intercepts in two states, national phone-mail survey, and an Internet survey with a national, probability-based sample. The modes differ in terms of the representativeness of the samples, non-response rates, sample selection effects, and consistency of responses. The article also shows that the estimated benefit value can differ substantially depending on the survey mode. The national Internet panel has the most desirable properties …
Micro-Offsets And Macro-Transformation: An Inconvenient View Of Climate Change Justice, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Brooke A. Ackerly, Fred E. Forster
Micro-Offsets And Macro-Transformation: An Inconvenient View Of Climate Change Justice, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Brooke A. Ackerly, Fred E. Forster
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
We have been asked to examine climate change justice by discussing the methods of allocating the costs of addressing climate change among nations. Our analysis suggests that climate and justice goals cannot be achieved by better allocating the emissions reduction burdens of current carbon mitigation proposals — there may be no allocation of burdens using current approaches that achieves both climate and justice goals. Instead, achieving just the climate goal without exacerbating justice concerns, much less improving global justice, will require focusing on increasing well-being and inducing fundamental changes in development patterns to generate greater levels of well-being with reduced …
Estimating Discount Rates For Environmental Quality From Utility-Based Choice Experiments, W. Kip Viscusi
Estimating Discount Rates For Environmental Quality From Utility-Based Choice Experiments, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
We estimate rates of time preference using a utility-based choice experiment administered to a nationally representative sample of 2,914 respondents. For the full sample, the rate of time preference is very high for immediate benefits and drops off substantially thereafter, which is inconsistent with exponential discounting but consistent with hyperbolic discounting. Estimates of the hyperbolic discounting parameter range from 0.48 to 0.61. Visitors to water bodies have low rates of discount but exhibit hyperbolic discounting, whereas those who do not visit have consistently high rates of discount and low valuations of water quality.
Allocating Responsibility For The Failure Of Global Warming Policies, W. Kip Viscusi, Joni Hersch
Allocating Responsibility For The Failure Of Global Warming Policies, W. Kip Viscusi, Joni Hersch
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
A recent series of climate change lawsuits has sought to mimic the "regulation through litigation" approach of the claims brought by the states against cigarette manufacturers. What is distinctive about the cigarette cases relative to conventional tort claims is that they were not brought on behalf of individual smokers, but rather sought to recoup the Medicaid-related costs of smoking. A parallel climate change litigation approach seeks payments from public utilities, energy producers, and other parties responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to reflect the long-term societal damages that the plaintiffs claim will be caused by this pollution. While environmental litigation of …
Allocating Responsibility For The Failure Of Global Warming Policies, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi
Allocating Responsibility For The Failure Of Global Warming Policies, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
A recent series of climate change lawsuits has sought to mimic the "regulation through litigation" approach of the claims brought by the states against cigarette manufacturers. What is distinctive about the cigarette cases relative to conventional tort claims is that they were not brought on behalf of individual smokers, but rather sought to recoup the Medicaid-related costs of smoking. A parallel climate change litigation approach seeks payments from public utilities, energy producers, and other parties responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to reflect the long-term societal damages that the plaintiffs claim will be caused by this pollution. While environmental litigation of …
Rational Discounting For Regulatory Analysis, W. Kip Viscusi
Rational Discounting For Regulatory Analysis, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Monetizing The Benefits Of Risk And Environmental Regulation, W. Kip Viscusi
Monetizing The Benefits Of Risk And Environmental Regulation, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Should the benefits of risk and environmental regulations be monetized? For economists, this question is not controversial. Benefits of government policies have a value given by society's willingness to pay for these benefits, which by its very nature poses the valuation issue in monetary terms. Government agencies have likewise not shied away from monetizing these benefits. A contrary school of thought, however, has recently emerged, as reflected in the book by Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling, Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing. As the title of the book suggests, the authors oppose economists' attempts …
A Manifesto For The Radical Middle, J.B. Ruhl
A Manifesto For The Radical Middle, J.B. Ruhl
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This article advocates an active, concerted strategy for staking out the middle ground in environmental policy. The middle ground - the domain of "middle of the roaders" - has conventionally been defined by compromise, and as a result lacks any defining content and principles. I propose an aggressive middle that uses enriched sources of information, agency professional judgment, and transparent adaptive management as its components.
Working Both (Positivist) Ends Toward A New (Pragmatist) Middle In Environmental Law, J.B. Ruhl
Working Both (Positivist) Ends Toward A New (Pragmatist) Middle In Environmental Law, J.B. Ruhl
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
This review of Daniel Farber's recent book Eco-pragmatism, in which he argues on behalf of taking more pragmatic approaches to the development of environmental policy, provides both the background necessary for appreciating Farber's union of ecosystem dynamics science and environmental pragmatism philosophy, and the basis for extending the new "eco-pragmatism" approach into natural resources conservation settings. Eco-pragmatism implies the intersection of two components-the eco, being the rich and developing field of ecosystem science and management, and the pragmatism, being the classical American pragmatist philosophy represented today in environmental settings through the emergence of environmental pragmatism philosophy. Unfortunately, Eco-pragmatism provides little …
Book Review: U.S. Energy And Environmental Interest Groups By Lettie Wenner, Tracey E. George
Book Review: U.S. Energy And Environmental Interest Groups By Lettie Wenner, Tracey E. George
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Interest groups have played a dominant if not determinative role in the "greening of America." Thus, that Lettie Wenner, a political scientist who has devoted much of her career to studying environmental issues (The Environmental Decade (1982) and One Environment Under Law (1976)), should publish a compendium describing such groups is an occasion for optimism. And, indeed, she does provide a useful reference tool for those seeking basic descriptions of these groups; yet, unfortunately, she does not offer a thorough or critical understanding of how they operate.
Sources Of Inconsistency In Societal Responses To Health Risks, W. Kip Viscusi
Sources Of Inconsistency In Societal Responses To Health Risks, W. Kip Viscusi
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Society has until recently devoted insufficient attention to the long-run environmental problems that we face, including acid rain and the greenhouse effect. Our inaction with respect to these risks can hardly be characterized as a rational response or an overreaction to risk. There are three possible explanations of such diverse phenomena. First, one could simply dismiss this behavior as being the result of inconsistent and irrational behavior. Second, one could devise ad hoc explanations of why individuals underreact in some instances and overreact in others. A third possibility is to reconcile this seemingly inconsistent behavior with a consistent theoretical framework. …