Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and Systemic Racism

This article highlights some ways in which scholarly work in environmental and natural resource economics may be affected by, and may unintentionally further, racial inequity. We discuss four channels through which these effects may occur. The first is prioritization of efficiency over distribution. The second is inattention to procedural justice. The third involves abstraction away from crucial historical or social contexts. The fourth is a narrow focus on problems that fit neatly within existing analytical and empirical frameworks. We follow these threads through three areas in which we offer examples of how environmental and natural resource economics work may further racial inequity. The first involves methods of evaluating and measuring human and social welfare. The second relates to policy modeling choices. The third centers on analysis of management of the commons. We document opportunities to improve the field by better considering how racial inequity may affect, and be affected by, environmental and natural resource economic analysis. Scholars in this field have tools that can mitigate systemic racism in access to natural resources and a clean environment, but work must be done before that potential is realized.