Protecting the Environment: Privately

Protecting the Environment: Privately,  Professor Jeff Bennett, Professor of Environmental Management Australian National University

Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society & The Economics Society of Australia

Most volumes in the environmental economics literature consider the environment to be a public good and hence write out a role for the private sector as a source of supply. Yet there is ample evidence of the private sector being involved, driven both by profit and altruism. Professor Bennett will speak to how his recently published book provides the necessary conceptual base for the inclusion of the private sector in the environmental protection supply equation and deliver an extensive set of examples in a wide range of contexts. In an economic climate where governments are attempting to reduce expenditures, the increased role for the private sector will be readily embraced by policy makers. (Edited from: http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9580)

Professor Bennett has over 30 years experience researching, consulting and teaching in the fields of Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics and Applied Micro-Economics. His current research interests focus on:

• the development and application of techniques to estimate the value of non-marketed environmental benefits and costs, and,
• the analysis of alternative institutional structures that give private owners/managers of natural resources the incentive to provide environmental benefits.

This second area is the focus of attention of a recently published book which he will speak to in the seminar.

Professor Bennett is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Jeff was also President of that Society in 2002. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Councils of the Centre for Independent Studies and the Menzies research Centre. In 2014 he was elected to the Board of the Mont Pelerin Society. From 2007 to 2011, Jeff was Director of the Environmental and Economics Research Hub. (Edited from "Research Interests" @ https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/academic/jeff-bennett)

A sandwich lunch will be provided.

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