Mechanism Design for Public Goods and Environmental Externalities

This book is devoted to discussing recent, crucial environmental problems, including global and urban warming, urban heat islands, biological diversity, disaster remains, and the nuclear disasters attributable to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accompanying tsunami. Also considered are various issues of importance in planning procedures for optimally providing public goods, since the health of the environment is a public good. The methodology adopted in this book utilises the theory of mechanism design and Gorman-Lancaster-Sen’s approach. The text employs both theoretical and practical reasoning and logic. What is unique here is the book’s application of Gorman-Lancaster-Sen’s approach to environmental problems. In the Gorman-Lancaster’s New Consumer Theory, any good is regarded as a composition of attributes or characteristics; in Sen’s Capability Theory, any individual utilizes his or her time and functionings to obtain their being to maximize happiness. The book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, professors, and policy makers, as it provides a new way of thinking about environmental problems, and represents an important contribution to operational public goods theory and environmental information sciences.