SouthViews No. 237, 31 May 2022
Structural Change and the Environment
By Calixto Salomão Filho
Free-riding and free driving are relevant problems undermining structural transformation in environmental matters. These two different trends of the markets give incentive to opportunistic and individualistic behavior that hinders the abilities of international markets to create positive environmental externalities. To the contrary, they might lead to monopolistic concentration and negative environmental externalities.
Law, instead of allowing them (through carbon markets compensations only, for example) should look for alternatives of structural transformation of markets. Both well know concepts as the common goods and newer ideas as the possibility of positive screening of transformative market alternatives (or transformed enterprises) might be really useful for such a goal and consequently for the production of positive environmental externalities.