LIBRI DI GERARDO MARLETTO

Car use is an increasingly serious problem in many modern cities because of polluting emissions, noise, accidents and congestion. To examine this issue, this paper analyzes the individual choice between taking the car and using alternative transport modes (e.g. walking, cycling, taking the bus etc.) in the presence of cars’ negative impacts on alternative transport modes. Using a simple evolutionary model, we show the existence of suboptimal Nash equilibria characterized by the widespread use of cars and discuss the effects of simple transport policies that reduce cars’ negative impacts on alternative transport modes.

Heterodox Environmental Economics: Theoretical Strands in Search of a Paradigm - Heterodox environmental economics is mainly based on non-mainstream economic theories; in particular it refers to two classic strands of economics (and to their recent revival and cross-fertilization): institutional economics and Schumpeterian economics. Starting from these theoretical foundations, heterodox environmental economics radically differs from the mainstream (market-centred and static) approach to positive and normative environmental economics. Three basic concepts are at the hearth of such a different vision: resource regimes, as institutional structures established to regulate access to natural resources and their use; environmental appraisals, as "value articulating" institutions conditioned by the incommensurability of conflicting values; "sociotechnical" transitions, as dynamic processes that are needed to unlock existing unsustainable technologies, institutions and values. These considerations are not sufficient to say that heterodox environmental economics has already become a paradigm; a stable community of researchers defining themselves as ‘heterodox environmental economists’ still does not exist. Time will tell if some emerging connections between different research groups will generate the social core of a nascent paradigm.

Keywords: environmental economics; heterodox economics; institutional economics; evolutionary theories of economic change

JEL classification: B52; Q50

Gli atti dell’VIII Riunione Scientifica del SIET evidenziano il ruolo centrale dei trasporti nel quadro dell’ampliamento dell’Unione Europea. Con lo scopo di perseguire obiettivi quali il risparmio energetico, la sicurezza dei trasporti, il contenimento degli effetti ambientali, il volume tratta problematiche legate all’omogeneizzazione organizzativa e normativa del settore e al ruolo dei trasporti e della logistica nelle realtà distrettuali. I contributi si focalizzano sulle criticità del trasporto locale e urbano e sulle ricadute che il sistema dei trasporti produce sull’ambiente.

The aim of the paper is to reconsider the Italian transport policy. First, the six main transport policies implemented in Italy since the sixties are deeply analysed: building of infrastructure; supply of public services; promotion of competition; reduction of external costs; internationalisation; promotion of innovation. Then, they are compared using four Kuhnian paradigms of state intervention in the economy. Finally, two conclusions come out: 1) the today prevailing competitive paradigm is not adequate to promote and to make viable the creation of new transport systems; 2) there is a need to explicitly refer to structural and dynamic paradigms as the theoretical foundations of an entirely new transport policy.

L'intervento pubblico nei servizi di trasporto passeggeri su lunga distanza: pro e contro il mercato The current bias towards the promotion of competitive markets is not based on sound theoretical roots, but on the awareness of «state failures» and on the revival of the neoclassical ideology. Therefore, when competitive markets are not able to reach an efficient allocation of resources and a satisfactory level of social equity and of quantitative and qualitative development, there is still room for public policies alternative to competitive markets. The paper shows that this is the case in the sector of long-distance passenger transport. Actually, to foster the development of this sector a threefold approach is needed. The first one to complete the recent effort to promote the liberalization of services and the competitive regulation of infrastructures. The second one to provide an adequate level of public goods infrastructures, education, innovation, research and to protect consumers. The third one to act consistently with the existence of network, environmental and health externalities. Competitive markets have a secondary role in the proposed approach: they are just one of the policy tools and they are structurally conditioned by public intervention in the economy.