A. V. KNEESE’S WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT RESEARCH (1960S), WITHIN THE HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS

Abstract

Allen V. Kneese is called the “father” or “pioneer” of the field of environmental economics but, despite his contributions to that field and the importance of his works, Kneese has not been acknowledged sufficiently in the history of environmental economic thought, and differences between his research and that in the Pigouvian tradition have been obscured over time. This article focuses on his research in the 1960s on water quality management and inquires into differences between his work and that in the Pigouvian tradition. Kneese alternated between theoretical and empirical work and revised the Pigouvian framework pragmatically. The Kneesian framework consists of a two-stage approach, and its substructure is the institutional form of policy agents. To understand the historical meaning of the Kneesian approach, it is useful to compare it to John Krutilla’s “evaluation of non-market value,” Ronald Coase’s “comparative institutional approach,” and Elinor Ostrom’s “Commons.”