IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/22580.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Preserving or escaping? On the welfare effects of environmental self-protective choices

Author

Listed:
  • Antoci, Angelo
  • Borghesi, Simone

Abstract

In modern societies individuals often try to alleviate their personal damages from environmental degradation by increasing their consumption of private goods. Although this “self-protective” behavior is very frequent in industrial economies, insufficient attention has been paid to its economic and environmental consequences. In this paper we show that such a behavior can give rise to a self-reinforcing growth process in which environmental degradation increases economic growth and vice-versa, leading the economy on a welfare-reducing path. For this purpose, we first provide several examples of environmental self-protective choices to give a heuristic view of this phenomenon and then examine their effects through a two-islands evolutionary model that leads the reader beyond a purely intuitive understanding of the argument. Although the proposed model is deliberately very simple, it may provide some interesting insights on an aspect that has been mainly ignored in the literature so far.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone, 2010. "Preserving or escaping? On the welfare effects of environmental self-protective choices," MPRA Paper 22580, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:22580
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/22580/1/MPRA_paper_22580.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David H. Ciscel, 2001. "The Economics of Urban Sprawl: Inefficiency as a Core Feature of Metropolitan Growth," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 405-413, June.
    2. Glaeser, Edward L. & Kahn, Matthew E., 2004. "Sprawl and urban growth," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 56, pages 2481-2527, Elsevier.
    3. Jorgen W. Weibull, 1997. "Evolutionary Game Theory," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262731215, December.
    4. Marcy Burchfield & Henry G. Overman & Diego Puga & Matthew A. Turner, 2006. "Causes of Sprawl: A Portrait from Space," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 587-633.
    5. Jason Shogren & Thomas Crocker, 1991. "Cooperative and noncooperative protection against transferable and filterable externalities," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 1(2), pages 195-214, June.
    6. Tim Forsyth, 2002. "What happened on "The Beach"? Social movements and governance of tourism in Thailand," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(3), pages 326-337.
    7. Christian Leipert, 1986. "Social Costs of Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 109-131, March.
    8. Bartolini, Stefano & Bonatti, Luigi, 2002. "Environmental and social degradation as the engine of economic growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 1-16, November.
    9. Bartolini, Stefano & Bonatti, Luigi, 2003. "Undesirable growth in a model with capital accumulation and environmental assets," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 11-30, February.
    10. Antoci, Angelo & Bartolini, Stefano, 1999. "Negative externalities as the engine of growth in an evolutionary context," MPRA Paper 13908, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Antoci, Angelo & Galeotti, Marcello & Russu, Paolo, 2005. "Consumption of private goods as substitutes for environmental goods in an economic growth model," MPRA Paper 13664, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Antoci, Angelo, 2009. "Environmental degradation as engine of undesirable economic growth via self-protection consumption choices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1385-1397, March.
    13. Rauscher, Michael, 2009. "Concentration, separation, and dispersion: Economic geography and the environment," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 109, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    14. Angelo Antoci & Simone Borghesi & Marcello Galeotti, 2008. "Should we replace the environment?," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(4), pages 283-297, March.
    15. Richard K. Green, 1999. "Nine Causes of Sprawl," Wisconsin-Madison CULER working papers 99-08, University of Wisconsin Center for Urban Land Economic Research.
    16. Guy Garrod & Kenneth G. Willis, 1999. "Economic Valuation of the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1368.
    17. Angelo Antoci & Stefano Bartolini, 1997. "Externalities and Growth in an Evolutionary Game," Department of Economics Working Papers 9710, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    18. Gian Italo Bischi & Carl Chiarella & Laura Gardini (ed.), 2010. "Nonlinear Dynamics in Economics, Finance and Social Sciences," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-642-04023-8, June.
    19. Bird, Peter J. W. N., 1987. "The transferability and depletability of externalities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 54-57, March.
    20. repec:bla:econom:v:50:y:1983:i:200:p:425-37 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Angelo Antoci & Simone Borghesi & Gerardo Marletto, 2012. "To drive or not to drive? A simple evolutionary model," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2012(2), pages 31-47.
    2. Luisa Corrado & Andrea Fazio & Alessandra Pelloni, 2020. "Pro-environmental attitudes, local environmental conditions and recycling behavior," Working Paper series 20-21, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, revised Nov 2021.
    3. Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone & Russu, Paolo & Ticci, Elisa, 2015. "Foreign direct investments, environmental externalities and capital segmentation in a rural economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 341-353.
    4. Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone & Galeotti, Marcello & Sodini, Mauro, 2021. "Living in an uncertain world: Environment substitution, local and global indeterminacy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone & Galeotti, Marcello & Russu, Paolo, 2022. "Maladaptation to environmental degradation and the interplay between negative and positive externalities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    6. Angelo Antoci & Paolo Russu & Elisa Ticci, 2022. "Modeling maladaptation in the inequality–environment nexus," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 17(1), pages 115-140, January.
    7. Alessandro Fiori Maccioni, 2018. "Environmental depletion, defensive consumption and negative externalities," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 41(2), pages 203-218, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antoci, Angelo & Sodini, Mauro, 2009. "Indeterminacy, bifurcations and chaos in an overlapping generations model with negative environmental externalities," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 1439-1450.
    2. Antoci, Angelo, 2009. "Environmental degradation as engine of undesirable economic growth via self-protection consumption choices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1385-1397, March.
    3. Alessandro Fiori Maccioni, 2018. "Environmental depletion, defensive consumption and negative externalities," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 41(2), pages 203-218, November.
    4. Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone & Russu, Paolo, 2012. "Environmental protection mechanisms and technological dynamics," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 840-847.
    5. Angelo Antoci & Simone Borghesi, 2010. "Environmental degradation, self-protection choices and coordination failures in a North–South evolutionary model," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 5(1), pages 89-107, June.
    6. Angelo Antoci & Paolo Russu & Elisa Ticci, 2008. "Structural Change, Environment and Well-being: Interactions Between Production and Consumption Choices of the Rich and the Poor in Developing Countries," Working Papers 2008.48, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    7. Angelo Antoci, 2005. "Environmental Resources Depletion and Interplay Between Negative and Positive Externalities in a Growth Model," Working Papers 2005.9, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    8. Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone & Russu, Paolo & Ticci, Elisa, 2015. "Foreign direct investments, environmental externalities and capital segmentation in a rural economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 341-353.
    9. Antoci, Angelo & Russu, Paolo & Ticci, Elisa, 2009. "Distributive impact of structural change: Does environmental degradation matter?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 266-278, December.
    10. Angelo Antoci & Marcello Galeotti & Serena Sordi, 2016. "Environmental pollution as engine of industrialization," Department of Economics University of Siena 725, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    11. Antoci, Angelo & Russu, Paolo & Ticci, Elisa, 2008. "Structural change, economic growth and environmental dynamics with heterogeneous agents," MPRA Paper 13668, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Antoci, Angelo & Sabatini, Fabio & Sodini, Mauro, 2012. "The Solaria syndrome: Social capital in a growing hyper-technological economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 802-814.
    13. Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, 1999. "Materials, Capital, Direct/Indirect Substitution, and Mass Balance Production Functions," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 75(4), pages 547-561.
    14. Carozzi, Felipe & Roth, Sefi, 2023. "Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    15. Ortuño-Padilla, Armando & Fernández-Aracil, Patricia, 2013. "Impact of fuel price on the development of the urban sprawl in Spain," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 180-187.
    16. Or Levkovich & Jan Rouwendal & Jos van Ommeren, 2020. "The impact of highways on population redistribution: the role of land development restrictions [Roads and innovation]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 783-808.
    17. Dascher, Kristof, 2019. "Function Follows Form," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 131-140.
    18. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    19. Ehrlich, Maximilian V. & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Schöni, Olivier, 2018. "Institutional settings and urban sprawl: Evidence from Europe," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 4-18.
    20. Travis Warziniack & David Finnoff & Jonathan Bossenbroek & Jason Shogren & David Lodge, 2011. "Stepping Stones for Biological Invasion: A Bioeconomic Model of Transferable Risk," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 50(4), pages 605-627, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-protective choices; defensive expenditures; environmental degradation; negative externalities; economic growth.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q20 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:22580. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.