Economia e meio ambiente na perspectiva do mundo industrializado: uma avaliação da economia ambiental neoclássica

Abstract

A stylized version of the concept of sustainable development is employed to evaluate neoclassical environmental economics, a school of thought which gives priority to the problems of today’sFirst Worldmarket economies. Neoclassical economics aims at determining the conditions by which, through the operation of a system of free markets, an economy achieves efficiency in the allocation of resources, and at recommending policies to remove imperfections, allowing the economy to approach Pareto optimality. For most members of this school, its theories apply to all market economies, regardless of their per capita income. The paper argues that from the point of view of sustainable development, neoclassical environmental economics is far from universal. This branch has concentrated on the environmental problems of the industrialized market economies. Moreover, it has shunned asside important aspects of the sustainability concept.