Message-ID: <35855267.10DD@worldscope.co.uk> Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 16:57:11 +0000 From: John Stuart <mailto:greenleaf@worldscope.co.uk> Subject: Perverse Subsidies To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
We are pleased to announce the availability of:Perverse Subsidies Tax $s Undercutting Our Economics and Environments Alike Norman Myers with Jennifer Kent Published by the IISD
ISBN 1-895536-09-x Published price £12.95/CAN$20.00 256pp paperback
Publication June 1998
Economically; subsidies push up the costs of government, including higher taxes (and often higher prices as well). In turn, this means they aggravate governmentsÕ budget deficits.
They divert government funds from better options for fiscal support. They distort economies in numerous other ways. For instance, they under-mine market decisions about investment, and they reduce the pressure for business to become more efficient. They tend to benefit the few at the expense of the many, and worse, the rich at the expense of the poor. They often serve to pay the polluter. They foster many other forms of environmental degradation, which apart from their intrinsic harm, act as a further drag on economies.
For all these reasons, perverse subsidies militate against sustainable development. They are a no-no whether economically; environmentally or socially. If they were to be reduced(while still leaving lots of subsidies for special interests), there would actually be a double dividend:
1. There would be an end to the formidable obstacles imposed by perverse subsidies on sustainable development.
2. There would be a huge stock of funds available to give a new push to sustainable development--funds on a scale that would be unlikely to become available through any other source. In the case of the United States, for instance, they would amount to more than $300 billion. This is larger than the Pentagon budget, $240 billion, and more than twice as large as the federal deficit, $126 billion.
This highly praised book synthesises how we have arrived at this ludicrous state of affairs, analyses the sectors that receive perverse subsidies and examines what governments should do to rectify the situation.
ÒI am very impressed with this report. It is a marvellous compilation and distillation,...a sober but astonishing account of the silent monetary war on the environment. It conclusively demonstrated that the Òeven playing fieldÓ in which environmental concerns are supposed to compete has never existed. With precision and thoroughness, Norman Myers reveals the $1.5 trillion flows from citizens to industry and other sectors, a transfer of wealth that raises taxes, enlarges government, destroys jobs and wastes the environment. From this point on, politicians are on notice that we cannot ÒsaveÓ the environment while paying for its demise. Congratulations on a seminal and singularly important work.Ó Paul Hawken, author of Òthe Ecology of CommerceÓ
ÒNorman Myers has an amazing talent for raising radical new questions. In this report he asks how much money is going into subsidies that undercut our environments and our economies alike. This is a remarkably revealing report on the way our world works-or doesnÕt work.Ó Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University
ÒNorman Dyers offers impressive documentation of important subsidies to key economic sectors throughout the world. His book will be very useful to anyone interested in understanding the variety and extent of these very costly economic policies. And his strategies to remove these subsidies deserve attention.Ó Lawrence Goulder, Dept. of Economics, Stanford University
ÒGetting rid of perverse subsidies is an obvious step toward sustainable development. Norman Myers demonstrates convincingly that this is also a large step. Highly recommended.Ó Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland
ÒEssential Reading for anyone interested in the public policy aspects of sustainable development.Ó SustainAbility Ltd
ÒThe bibliography alone is worth the price.Ó Ron Steenblik, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
ÒThis substantive text will prove very useful to many of us in the Bank.Ó Ismael Serageldin, The World Bank Norman Myers is a Consultant in Environment and Development, and Honorary Visiting Fellow of Green College, Oxford University, UK with Jennifer Kent Research Associate.
The book is available from Greenleaf Publishing to customers outside of North America. North American customers, please contact the International Institute for Sustainable Development, 161 Portage Ave.East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 0Y4 . Tel: (204) 958 7700 Fax: (204) 958 7710 E-mail: mailto:info@iisd.ca
The book is available for £12.95 This price is inclusive of delivery to UK customers. Overseas customers please add £3.00 for Air Mail Postage/Packing.
To order ÔPerverse SubsidiesÕ please either fax/post a purchase order, credit card details (Visa/Mastercard Ñ not AMEX), or send a cheque to:
-- John Stuart Managing Editor Greenleaf Publishing, Broom Hall, 8-10 Broomhall Road, Sheffield S10 2DR, UK Tel: +44 114 2663789 Fax: +44 114 2679403http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com