Week 3 (List)

Here's a bit of thought... What would it really take to reach a pivital point? The inflection of the curve...
So, I never saw anyone answer his question... is there really such evidence of a switching point? a "marginal product of environmental protection" curve?
This is the most interesting e-mail I had come across this week... and it's naught more than a question which is unanswered. I did a google search to see if I could find such a thing and the closest I came were the following:
Valuing Water for Chinese Industries: A marginal productivity assessment
which was a study done in China where a marginal productivity approach is developed that shows a value system for the water use and systems.
Environmental Economics
this was a listing of published environmental economics studies.

I have not yet read either of these all the way through, but glancing at parts of the China document and at some of the links on the Enveco page, they seem like maybe they will be relevant for your purposes.

KIMBER


________________________________

From: Land & Resource Economics Network on behalf of Chris Bruce
Sent: Wed 22-Feb-06 17:19
To: RESECON@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Economies of scale in preservation



Reseconers:

I am seeking your assistance: My intution suggests that there may
be economies of scale in the production of environmental protection,
especially in the protection of endangered species and especially
at the industry- or habitat-wide level. That is, it seems plausible that

if the habitat of a species has been severely degraded, there may
be little to be gained if the individual firm engages in environmental
"protection." (Reducing your emissions into a highly polluted stream
may have little or no effect on the fish already dying there.) But if
enough firms engage in environmentally sound practices, a kind
of "switching point" may be reached, beyond which the marginal
benefits of those practices will be positive, and even increasing over
some range.

What I am wondering is whether anyone can direct me to articles
that discuss the shape of the "marginal product of environmental
protection" curve. Are there cases in which that curve, reasonably
can be assumed to have a positive slope over some relevant region?

Thanks very much.

Chris Bruce
Professor of Economics
University of Calgary