Positive impacts of environmental policy on business in the United States

Abstract

This paper asserts that environmental policy in the United States has had several positive impacts on the business community. This viewpoint is important, because popular discussion of environmental policy generally focuses on only negative impacts for the economy. Three areas of environmental policy are examined: legislation, regulation, and government‐funded research. In each of these areas, specific examples are cited to exemplify ways in which environmental policy has promoted certain economic interests. No attempt is made to refute the many negative effects that environmental policy has created for the economy. Rather, the paper highlights several positive effects, and discusses how these alter the conception of benefit‐cost analysis that simply pits environmental benefits against economic costs. Finally, the paper examines the efficacy of evaluating environmental policy with a benefit‐cost framework, and suggests areas of environmental policy where such an analysis of tradeoffs is and is not acceptable.