Developments in Economic Valuation of Environmental Resources in Centrally Planned Economies

Abstract

Environmental policy in centrally planned economies is nowadays based mainly on administrative measures, such as licences and standards. The realisation of environmental targets by physical planning, management, and regulation alone, however, is falling short of expectations. For that reason, economists in centrally planned economies have recently put forward various proposals for using economic mechanisms in environmental policy based on the economic valuation of natural resources and environmental degradation. Within these economic valuations three leading methodologies can be distinguished, based on Marx's labour theory of value, the notion of differential rent, and the notion of reproduction costs, respectively. Up till now, these proposals are only considered for use in perspective planning and they therefore bypass day-to-day economic practice. Besides that, the emphasis of most proposals is mainly on optimising economic behaviour rather than maintaining a certain level of environmental quality. If compared with the Western World's neoclassical methods of valuation some formal analogies in both approaches can be observed.