The Economist, 2/8/92, p. 66, and a letter from Summers, on 2/15/92, p. 6. Check with whoever teaches environmental in your department. If they have a copy of my text, Economics and the Environment, there is a long discussion of the Summer's argument, along with the juicy quotes, on pages 177-181. regards, Eban On Mon, 9 Dec 1996, Tavis Barr wrote: > > As I remember, it was an internal World Bank memo a little over four > years ago from Summers who was then head cheese to the then vice-head > cheese (can't remember who that was) that got leaked to the press. > Summers was not joking. The argument is very simple: People in poorer > countries are poorer therefore you have to pay them less hten people in > rich countries to accept bad things therefore they will be better off > taking a burden at a given compensation. It can be show rigorously > using utility theory without too much difficulty (poorer people have > lower marginal disutilities in monetary terms). Summers didn't even > bother talking about compensating people (I s'pose the argument holds in > the limit as the amount of compensation goes to zero). I'd look in The > Nation in the summer of 92 or so. > > The scary thing is, he's actually more progressive than a lot of > mainstream economists. > > > A la peant butter sandwiches, > Tavis > > > On Mon, 9 Dec 1996, Robert Cherry wrote: > > > I recall that Summers argued that it would be efficient if we exported > > pollution-producing production overseas. Does anyone have a reference and > > the specifics of his argument. It came up at Brooklyn College and a > > colleague told people that he said it in jest which I am sure is not true. > > > > Robert Cherry > > Brooklyn College > > EMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Eban Goodstein email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Economics phone: 503-768-7626 Lewis and Clark College fax: 503-768-7379 Portland, OR 97219
