Transcending the Limitations of Environmental Economic Framing: Toward a Metaeconomics of Environmental Choice

This paper further tests dual interest theory and the metaeconomics approach to environmental choice, recognizing a possible role for empathy-sympathy (the basis for an internalized, shared other-interest) in tempering and conditioning the more fundamental tendency to pursue self-interest. To test, we focus on rivers flowing through agricultural areas carrying sediments, chemicals, and fertilizers which are making their way into downstream rivers and lakes. We use data from a framed experiment. Farmers decide on the usage of conservation technology to lessen impacts on the water quality in downstream areas, which is more costly. The results confirm our hypotheses, demonstrating that upstream farmers who practice conservation are tempering profit maximization with empathy-based, environmentally conscious behavior that better serves the farmers’ own-interest, and thus also serves downstream users. Environmental economics models need to explicitly include empathy-sympathy and the moral-ethical context it produces, providing a more scientific basis for conservation policy and programs.