Stroup Richard PERC

liver cancer

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Citation: Bezdek, R., Steele, C.N., and Stroup, R.L. 2019. Environmental Economics. In: Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels. Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. Arlington Heights, IL: The Heartland Institute.

Environmental Economics

Chapter Lead Authors: Roger Bezdek, Ph.D., Charles N. Steele, Ph.D., Richard L. Stroup, Ph.D.

:{Contributors: John Baden, Ph.D., Joseph L. Bast Reviewers: Dennis T. Avery, William N. Butos, Ph.D., Jorge David Chapas, Donald R. Crowe, Donn Dears, Albrecht Glatzle, Dr.Sc.Agr., Kesten Green, Ph.D., Kenneth Haapala, Donald Hertzmark, Ph.D., Brian Joondeph, M.D., M.P.S., Paul McFadyen, Ph.D., John Merrifield, Ph.D., Alan Moran, Ph.D., Robert Murphy, Ph.D., Charles T. Rombough, Ph.D., Ronald Rychlak, J.D., David Stevenson, Daniel Sutter, Ph.D., Richard J. Trzupek, Gösta Walin, Ph.D., Thomas F. Walton, Ph.D., Bernard L. Weinstein, Ph.D.

Key Findings Introduction 1.1 History 1.2 Key Concepts 1.2.1 Opportunity Cost 1.2.2 Competing Values 1.2.3 Prices 1.2.4 Incentives 1.2.5 Trade 1.2.6 Profits and Losses

1.2.7 Unintended Consequences 1.2.8 Discount Rates 1.2.9 Cost-benefit Analysis 1.3 Private Environmental Protection 1.3.1 Common-pool Resources 1.3.2 Cooperation 1.3.3 Prosperity 1.3.4 Local Knowledge 1.3.5 Ecological Economics 1.4 Government Environmental Protection 1.4.1

Property Rights 1.4.2 Regulation 1.4.3 Bureaucracy 1.4.4 Rational Ignorance 1.4.5

Rent-seeking Behavior 1.4.6 Displacement 1.4.7 Leakage 1.5 Future Generations 1.5.1 Conservation and Protection 1.5.2 Innovation 1.5.3 Small versus Big Mistakes 1.6 Conclusion}:

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:{Richard Lyndell Stroup (1943–2021)^[1] was a free-market environmentalist and emeritus professor of economics at both North Carolina State University and Montana State University. :{He was co-founder of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and a senior fellow.^[2] }:

He was also a research fellow at the Independent Institute,^[3] adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute, and a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society.^[4] At Montana State University, he served as head of the Department of Agricultural Economics & Economics from 2003 to 2006. Stroup was director of the Office of Policy Analysis in the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1982 to 1984.^[5][6]}:

He was coauthor with James Gwartney and others of Economics: Public and Private Choice, an economics principles textbook now in its 17th edition.^[7] This textbook introduced public choice economics to a broad student audience. Public choice is the application of economic principles to governmental decision-making.

Among other writing, he contributed to Re-Thinking Green,^[8] edited Cutting Green Tape^[9] and was the author of Eco-Nomics: What Everyone Should Know about Economics and the Environment, which received the 2004 Sir Anthony Fisher Memorial Award.^[10] He was a coauthor of Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know about Wealth and Prosperity.^[11]

Stroup contributed to the development of free market environmentalism and its academic forerunner, the New Resource Economics. He started with an article jointly written with John Baden, "Externality, Property Rights, and Management of National Forests" in the October 1973 issue of the Journal of Law and Economics. The article criticized the U. S. Forest Service's management of national forests and explored the possibility of private ownership of forests (including ownership by environmental groups).

Stroup received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington, where he also received his bachelor's and master's degrees. He was married to Jane Shaw Stroup (Jane S. Shaw), chairperson of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal (previously the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy).

Publications

• Gwartney, James D., Richard L. Stroup, Russell S. Sobel, and David A. McPherson. Economics: Private and Public Choice, 17th ed. Boston, MA: Cengage, 2022.
• Stroup, Richard L. Eco-Nomics: What Everyone Should Know About Economics and the Environment. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2003 and 2016. Received the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award in 2004.
• Gwartney, James D., Richard L. Stroup, Dwight R. Lee, Tawni H. Ferrarini, and Joseph P. Calhoun, Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know about Wealth and Prosperity. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005, 2010, 2016.
• Stroup, Richard L. (2008). "Free-Market Environmentalism". In David R. Henderson (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (2nd ed.). Indianapolis: Library of Economics and Liberty. ISBN 978-0865976658. OCLC 237794267.
• Stroup, Richard L. and Roger E. Meiners, contributing eds. Cutting Green Tape: Toxic Pollutants, Environmental Regulation and the Law. Oakland, CA: Independent Institute 1999, New York: Routledge, 2017.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Science and Public Policy," Regulation 27, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 3–4.
• Stroup, Richard L. Review of Out of Bounds, Out of Control by James Delong, in Independent Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Spring 2004).
• Stroup, Richard L. "Economic Freedom and Environmental Quality" in Mark A. Wynne, Harvey Rosenblum and Robert L. Formaini, eds., The Legacy of Milton and Rose Friedman's Free to Choose: Economic Liberalism at the Turn of the 21st Century. Dallas: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2004, pp. 73–92.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Toward a Better Forest Future: Contracting for Critters," in Forest Futures: Science, Politics, and Policy for the Next Century, edited by Karen Arabas and Joe Bowersox Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
• Stroup, Richard L. and Jane S. Shaw, "Technology and the Protection of Endangered Species," in The Half Life of Policy Rationales: How New Technology Affects Old Policy Issues, edited by Fred E. Foldvary and Daniel B. Klein. New York: New York University Press, 2003. pp. 243–255.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Superfund vs. Environmental Progress: Explaining a Disaster." Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, Studies in Social Cost, Regulation, and the Environment, 7. September 2001.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Preserving Wildlife, Usurping Private Property Rights," Environmental Science 6th ed., by Daniel D. Chiras. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2001, Section 12-1, 228.
• Morris, Andrew P. and Richard L. Stroup. "Quartering Species: The 'Living Constitution,' the Third Amendment, and the Endangered Species Act," Environmental Law 30 (2000): 769–809.
• Yates, Andrew J., and Richard L. Stroup. "Media Coverage and EPA Pesticide Decisions," Public Choice 102 (2000): 297–312.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Free Riders and Collective Action Revisited," Independent Review IV (4), Spring 2000, pp. 485–500.
• Stroup, Richard L., and Matthew Brown. "Selling Artifacts: The Free Market Can Advance Archaeology If Developers have Control of the Relics They Find," Regulation 23, no. 4 (Winter 2000): 4–6.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Privatizing Public Lands: Market Solutions to Economic and Environmental Problems," Public Land and Resources Law Review 19 (1998): 79–101.
• Stroup, Richard L. "The Endangered Species Act: The Laffer Curve Strikes Again," Journal of Private Enterprise 14, Special Issue (1998): 48–62.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Superfund: The Shortcut that Failed," in Terry L. Anderson, ed., Breaking the Environmental Policy Gridlock, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1997, pp. 115–139.
• Stroup, Richard L. "The Economics of Compensating Property Owners." Contemporary Economic Policy 15 (Oct. 1997): 55–65.
• Stroup, Richard L. "Property Rights, Justice, and Efficient Environmental Policy," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines 7, no. 2/3 (1996): 211–237 (Published 1997.)

References

1. "In Memoriam: Richard L. Stroup (1943–2021) | Michael C. Munger". The Independent Institute. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
2. "Stroup, Richard Lyndell," Who's Who in America, 46th ed., vol. 2 (Wilmette IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1990–1991), p. 3181.
3. Richard L. Stroup, Independent Institute
4. Fraser Institute: Richard L. Stroup
5. "Richard Stroup". www.perc.org. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
6. "About the Authors | Common Sense Economics". Retrieved 2021-08-13.
7. James D. Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, Russell S. Sobel, David A. MacPherson (2022). Economics: Public and Private Choice. Boston, MA: Cengage. ISBN 978-0357133996.
8. Stroup, Richard (2005). Re-Thinking Green. Independent Institute. ISBN 978-0945999973.
9. Stroup, Richard (2000). Cutting Green Tape. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0765806185.
10. "Prizes and Opportunities", Atlas Economic Research Foundation
11. "Common Sense Economics". Retrieved 2021-08-13.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• "Richard Lyndell Stroup", FamilySearch

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DENIAL POPE JRNL

Friday Interview: Professional Bias Toward Global Warming Alarmism

SOme people worry that global warming is a huge threat to our future. Others believe the danger has been oversold. Richard Stroup, adjunct professor of economics at N.C. State University, delivered a presentation this year to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society titled “Climate Change and People: Views from the Sciences and History.” Stroup also discussed the topic with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio. (Click here to find a station near you or to learn about the weekly CJ Radio podcast.)

Kokai: One of the key pieces of your presentation dealt with this idea that people, even with the best of intentions in addressing this issue of global warming and climate change, might come up with ideas and policy proposals that would be counterproductive at best and very harmful at worst. How does that happen?

Stroup: Well, inevitably, as Adam Smith taught us a long time ago as a moral philosopher, people have the ability to see and understand what goes on right around them, but the other 99.99 percent of the people on the planet that are farther away from them, that they don’t see and interact with, it’s very difficult for them to have any idea what those folks are going through or how they might be impacted by something that the decision maker might do. So everybody has what Justice Stephen Breyer calls tunnel vision. It’s absolutely inevitable.

:{It’s simply a matter of limitation of what we know and how much we can think about, so that I as an economist understand that economics is an extraordinarily important topic for students to study in university, or high school for that matter. If they don’t understand some economic principles, they’re going to be making bad mistakes for themselves and for everybody else down the road.

Now, by the same token, the professor of music probably understands that music is very important, that students who can understand music properly can lead a much more satisfying life and probably be better people. And that may be true. Now I as an economist know that mine is still more important! But again, we just naturally have something like tunnel vision because we can’t possibly have anything like knowledge of what everybody else is thinking about.}:

Kokai: So let’s apply this to climate science. A scientist working in this field sees data that suggest to that scientist that manmade contributions to carbon dioxide emissions are leading us to a path where we’re going to have a dangerous level of warming. So the recommendations are for policies that would reduce these CO2 emissions. What could be wrong in the process from going from the basic scientific data to these policy recommendations?

Stroup: The problem is that, because they believe their science and the possibilities they’re working on are very important, and the questions they’re looking at are very, very important — and that, by the way, helps to justify better funding for them — but again, if they really believe that what they’re doing is highly important, then there’s not very much conflict as they move from understanding that things could be as bad as this.

Maybe there’s only a 5 percent chance of it happening, but one time in 20 it could happen, and surely we want to avoid that because it could possibly be quite bad if that did come to pass. Well, they’re going to likely talk about that as something we just have to care about, and the way to get that kind of attention is to not say that there’s a 5 percent chance this is going to happen, but to say that I’m almost certain that this is a real possibility, and that we just can’t take a chance. We have to fund the research that will let us avoid that problem, and, meanwhile, we had better shut off the potential source of the problem.

Kokai: In discussing this in your presentation to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society, you made the point that when the scientist goes from the data and what the data showed, to these recommendations, they’re often getting into the realm of economics whether they know about it or not. What kind of problems does that create when one of these scientists starts making arguments that ought to be left to economic analysis?

Stroup: The problem is, of course, that they know that in order to get more attention, the problem — it very much helps if the problem is seen in the most distressing possible light that will get the attention to give force to their recommendations. It will also give force to their requests for more funding, and those are two powerful motives. And when an economist starts fooling around in their backyard, so to speak — at least that’s how they’re viewing it — they don’t like the idea of comparing the ideas that they are working toward versus the outcomes that some other scientist is working toward.

For example, meteorologists don’t like it when the astrophysicists come in with a different explanation of why we’ve had a lot of — we’ve had a significant amount of global warming in the last 100 to150 years; in fact, even more in the last 200 years — but whether or not it has to do with CO2 is another question. And the astrophysicists can show you much better correlations as a matter of fact with sunspots than the meteorologists can with greenhouse gases.

And so that disturbs them, and they do not want to let go of the idea that, “Boy, the problem I’m working on is really, really important, and even if we’re not sure that this is the best explanation, it may be, and it’s worth finding out, and we need big-time funding,” and that means it needs to be trumpeted as a big-time problem that they’re working on.

Kokai: Even if they had the proper explanation of what’s causing global warming, is there a problem when you don’t have a cost/benefit analysis of trying to do something about it?

Stroup: When you’re a policymaker, if you’re trying to help, not just this person or that person, not just this worthy goal or that worthy goal, but you’re trying to consider them all at the same time, then the very imperfect kind of analysis — in fact benefit/cost is imperfect — but that is better than nothing at all. And it’s a whole lot better than nothing at all, and it makes you ask the right questions and hopefully thereby avoid some of the worst policy errors.

You can go after a really nice goal, whether it’s more wilderness or less CO2, or more money for a particular hospital, but what are you giving up? And if you don’t ask the question of what we’re giving up when we do that, what other worthy goals are out there, it’s very difficult to do good benefit/cost analysis. A meteorologist untrained in policy analysis or economics is not going to do a very good job of it. But they’re not so much interested in benefit/cost analysis as they are letting people understand — forcing them to understand, if possible — that their job is so important it must be funded appropriately, which means more.

Topics on this page

Adam Smith Mitch Kokai North Carolina Stephen Breyer

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gl 6 26

[### Richard L. Stroup

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Richard_L._Stroup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_L._Stroup)

Richard Lyndell Stroup (1943–2021) was a free-market environmentalist and emeritus professor of economics at both North Carolina State University and ...Read more

Missing: aier ‎| Show results with: aier

[### In Memoriam: Richard L. Stroup (1943–2021)

Independent Institute

https://www.independent.org › tir › 2022-summer › in-...](https://www.independent.org/tir/2022-summer/in-memoriam-richard-l-stroup-19432021/)

Richard Stroup was one of the founders of the environmental economics movement, a conservationist of the first rank who co-founded the Property and ...Read more

[### Remembering Richard L. Stroup - IER The Institute for Energy Research

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org › uncategorized](https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/uncategorized/remembering-richard-l-stroup/)

Dec 2, 2021 — We are saddened to hear that former board member and longtime friend of IER Richard L. Stroup passed away on November 18, 2021.Read more

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[### Richard Stroup

Property and Environment Research Center

https://www.perc.org › People](https://www.perc.org/people/richard-stroup/)

Stroup was an emeritus professor at Montana State, where he taught for more than 37 years and served as the head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and ...Read more

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[### Richard L. Stroup

Cato Institute

https://www.cato.org › People](https://www.cato.org/people/richard-stroup)

Richard L. Stroup was an adjunct professor of economics at North Carolina State University and former professor of economics at Montana State University.Read more

Missing: aier ‎| Show results with: aier

[### Property Rights

AIER

https://aier.org › Archive for Property Rights](https://aier.org/topics/property-rights/page/2/)

Economic Bulletin Vol. XLV, no. 5 | May, 2005 Includes sections by Tom Bethell, Walker F. Todd, Richard L. Stroup, Lee Hoskins, Richard A. Posner, ...Read more

[### Richard L. Stroup

Independent Institute

https://www.independent.org › author › richard-l-stroup](https://www.independent.org/author/richard-l-stroup/)

Richard L. Stroup (1943–2021) was a Research Fellow and founding Member of the Board of Advisors at the Independent Institute and Emeritus Professor of ...Read more

[### Richard Stroup (1943 - 2021) - The Heartland Institute heartland.org

https://heartland.org › Profiles](https://heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/richard-stroup/)

Stroup was a widely published author and speaker on economics, including natural resources and environmental issues. He wrote the book Eco-Nomics: What Everyone ...Read more

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[### Richard Stroup, RIP

Reason Magazine

https://reason.com › The Volokh Conspiracy](https://reason.com/volokh/2021/11/24/richard-stroup-rip/)

Nov 24, 2021 — He succumbed to liver cancer after a long and productive career as an academic and policy analyst, and was one of the pioneers of free-market ...Read more

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[### RIP Rick Stroup

Policy Commons

https://policycommons.net › artifacts › rip-rick-stroup](https://policycommons.net/artifacts/1945107/rip-rick-stroup/2696880/)

by D Boaz · 2021 — Richard L. Stroup, a longtime friend of the Cato Institute, died November 18. He will be remembered as a pioneer of “free‐ market environmentalism” and as a ...Read more

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