Dr. Anderson was featured as part of the Nicole Maria Stata Lecture Series. This series consists of presentations given by national scholars and business people on current, relevant topics as well as on topics related to the research interests of the Business School. During his visit, Dr. Anderson spent time throughout the day speaking with the faculty and entertaining questions about designing a business curriculum which includes free market environmentalism concepts. During the evening, Dr. Anderson was the guest of honor at a reception held in the Fleming Museum's Marble Courtyard and then gave his presentation, Free Market Environmentalism, at 7:00 p.m. in the Fleming Auditorium. The highly-charged, entertaining, and educational lecture was attended by approximately 175 students, faculty members, School of Business Board of Advisors members, and community members.
Dr. Anderson's presentation began by addressing the notion that while we may all want to achieve an ideal environmental state, it is not easy to interpret and apply the multiple efficiency studies that have been conducted by economists, scientists, and other academics. While the rule "if marginal benefits outweigh the marginal costs, do it" may seem like a simple concept to apply, often the issues at stake are extremely complicated, and this black-and-white rule becomes difficult to implement. While one group may see greater marginal benefits than costs as the result of an action, another group may see greater marginal costs than benefits as a result of that same action. Numerous examples were presented, including an analysis of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. The reintroduction was viewed favorably by some stakeholders (e.g.: environmental groups, park visitors, etc.) and unfavorably by others (e.g.: ranchers, cattle herders).
Dr. Anderson next posed the question, "If we all want to have a better environment in which to live, how can/should we achieve this desired outcome?" In the past, our country has dealt with environmental issues primarily through a regulatory paradigm---by creating national parks, wildlife refuges, and national forests and restricting their use/access. Unfortunately, in many instances, these public lands have not worked well ecologically nor have they kept people from using these lands for unintended purposes. His alternative: free market environmentalism. The two main concepts of free market environmentalism are that wealth matters and incentives matter. Dr. Anderson again presented a number of different case examples (e.g.: International Paper and Campfire) where privatizing certain aspects of the environment actually helped turn the environment into an asset worth taking care of rather than a liability or cost that had to be minimized. By turning the environment into an asset, wealthier countries do a better job of protecting their own environments as they have a direct economic incentive to do so.
Along with his post at PERC, Dr. Anderson is a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and has published multiple books, including Free Market Environmentalism and Enviro-Capitalists (both co-authored with Donal Leal).