Griffin Barill
Research Mentor: Richard Lane
Mentor Department: Organizational Studies, LSA
Author(s): Not Available
Session: Session 7 (4:00 PM – 4:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 19
Abstract
Resources for the Future (RFF) is a Washington DC-based think tank founded in 1952. RFF has played an extremely influential role in the formation of environmental economics which has had a major influence shaping modern environmental policy. This project analyzes the history of RFF, researching the development of environmental economics and the impact they’ve had on environmental policy. Research was primarily done through analysis of archival and secondary materials: RFF’s own annual reports, and magazine articles as well as study into other academic and policy papers related to RFF or its members. Through this investigation, we uncovered the role that RFF economists had in creating the current landscape and understanding in which environmental policy resides. Particularly, in the development of theory surrounding scarcity, value, and externalities; as well as the application of economic techniques and theory onto environmental policy leading to a focus on natural resource and pollution statistics. By discovering the impact that RFF has had on how we think about the environment, especially in relation to economics, we can come to understand how the current relationship between nature and economic growth came to be. This also hints at larger implications related to climate change and the global economy stemming from RFF’s environmental economics.
