Natural Resource Policy, Values, and Economics (RPVE)

Letter to Participants

Dear RVPE Participants,

I am looking forward to our time together. You are receiving details about logistics, administration and scheduling related to the workshop (via the web site or sent hard copy to registered participants). Here, I would like to turn your attention to the substantive content of the workshop: resource values, policy and economics. As a way to draw your attention toward this domain of ideas and the intellectual path that the schedule maps for exploring this domain, consider the following questions.

First, reflect on values in society today regarding the environment and natural resources. What values are being expressed? By whom? In what ways? To what effect? How have values regarding resources changed over time? What is it we value? How is what we value produced, protected or maintained? Who in society produces what we value? And importantly for this workshop, how are value differences arbitrated in our society? How are values arbitrated in the private sector? the public sector?

Second, reflect on policy making in our society. Think about policy making processes you know. Who has the authority to make what decisions according to what rules of the game? As you think about policy making are you focused on formal processes of legislation? If so, are there alternative processes that are either informal or non-legislative? If so, are your answers the same for all the policy making processes you know? What is the role of the private sector? The nonprofit sector? The public sector?
How does your role in a public agency fit into the policy process you are considering?

Third, reflect on how it is we assess values in policy decision making. Think about what you know of economics as a way of thinking about bring information to bear on decisions made in the policy process. As you think about the things society values, which are well characterized by price in the market? For the values or the portion of value not well priced in the market, how can we capture those values for use in policy decision making? What techniques are you aware of to accomplish such valuation?

Finally, reflect on how information is used in decision making. As you think about policy making, how is information used in the process? Who uses what kind of information to inform their decision making? Will better information create better decisions? If so, how? And importantly for this workshop, what counts for better information? What are the limits of bring information to bear on decisions?

You may find the draft article, being sent hard copy, helpful as you reflect on these questions. While it does not address larger questions of policy process, value change in society, etc., it does frame a strategy for using economic techniques to assess values in resource policy decision making. It is written with clear application potential for the US Forest Service. The general framework of total economic value in ecosystems will be used as basis for integration of techniques in the workshop and as a basic approach for policy analysis in the workshop.

As you prepare for the workshop, think of specific case examples illustrating your responses to the above questions or illustrating issues you would like to raise because of your thinking about the above questions. The sets of questions are offered as probes to stimulate your thinking about resource values, policy and economics. I assure you that in our time together we will develop answers for some of these questions, generate additional questions and in the process further your understanding of the domain. It is not our objective for you to leave this workshop as expert economists or policy analyzers, but more critical thinkers in these areas.

I look forward to meeting you and sharing in your learning experience.

Sincerely,


Craig W. Shinn
Associate Professor of Public Administration