Solutions for the world's biggest problems : costs and benefits / edited by Bjørn Lomborg.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lomborg, Bjørn, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic policy.

International cooperation.

Cost effectiveness.

Physical Description:

xvii, 442 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Summary:

The world has many pressing problems. Thanks to the efforts of governments, NGOs, and individual activists there is no shortage of ideas for resolving them. However, even if all governments were willing to spend more money on solving the problems, we cannot do it all at once. We have to prioritize; and in order to do this we need a better sense of the costs and benefits of each "solution."

Solutions for the World's Biggest Problems offers a rigorous overview of twenty-three of the world's biggest problems relating to the environment, governance, economics, and health and population. Leading economists provide a short survey of the state-of-the-art analysis and sketch out some promising policy solutions for which they provide cost-benefit ratios.

The book is aimed not just at policy makers, but also at the many thousands of concerned citizens who want to see progress in the fight against poverty, disease, armed conflict and environmental degradation. Finding the best solutions requires as wide and as informed a debate as possible. To this end, a unique feature of the book is the provision of freely downloadable software which allows individual readers to make their own prioritizations of their preferred options for spending money to make the world a better place.

Contents:

Part I Economy

1 Financial instability / Peter Blair Henry 33

2 Lack of intellectual property rights / Keith E. Maskus 43

3 Money laundering / Donato Masciandaro 55

4 Subsidies and trade barriers / Kym Anderson 73

Part II Environment

5 Air pollution / Guy Hutton 85

6 Climate change / Gary Yoke 103

7 Deforestation / Henk Folmer, G. Cornelis van Kooten 125

8 Land degradation / Ian Coxhead, Ragnar Oygard 146

9 The economics of biodiversity loss / Dan Biller 162

10 Vulnerability to natural disasters / Roger A. Pielke, Jr. 178

Part III Governance

11 Arms proliferation / J. Paul Dunne 199

12 Conflicts / Paul Collier 220

13 Corruption / Susan Rose-Ackerman 229

14 Lack of education / Peter F. Orazem 241

15 Terrorism / Daniel Linotte 263

Part IV Health and population

16 Drugs / Jeffrey A. Miron 283

17 Disease control / Dean T. Jamison 295

18 Lack of people of working age / Robert E. Wright, Katerina Lisenkova 345

19 Living conditions of children / Harry Anthony Patrinos 358

20 Living conditions of women / Brinda Viswanathan 376

21 Hunger and malnutrition / Jere R. Behrman, Harold Alderman, John Hoddinott 390

22 Unsafe water and lack of sanitation / Guy Hutton 405

23 Population: migration / Michael J. Greenwood 425

Conclusion: Making your own prioritization / Bjorn Lomborg 440.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780521715973

0521715970

9780521887724

0521887720

OCLC:

165408072