ECONOMIC-GROWTH AND THE LIMITS OF ENVIRONMENTAL-REGULATION - A SOCIAL-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

After a quarter century of environmental regulation in this country, s ignificant environmental threats remain. Why has the regulatory system failed to fully address our environmental problems? The goal of this paper is to suggest that the roots of environmental problems, and the failure of environmental regulation, are deeply embedded in the proces ses that generate economic growth. The logic of the argument to be pre sented will take the following form: long-run economic growth relies o n the creation of new industries and new forms of economic activity; t hese new forms of economic activity create new kinds of environmental problems; these new forms of economic activity constitute vested polit ical interests that oppose environmental regulation. Each of the three main sections of the paper will provide theoretical and empirical jus tification for each component part of the basic argument.