Scholarship (Affiliate)
Environmental Policy and Regulation
The Routledge Handbook of Classical Liberalism
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Abstract
This chapter traces the four primary components of classical liberal thought about environmental policy and regulation: the Hayekian emphasis on markets as a discovery mechanism, the Epsteinian emphasis on simple rules for addressing complex problems, public choice theory’s skepticism of government action, Ostrom’s emphasis on emergent solutions, and the Coasean emphasis on transaction costs. Using examples from works by classical liberal scholars, this chapter illustrates how each of these components has contributed to the overall approach and traces the increasing acceptance of classical liberal ideas by policymakers.