Ökonomische Instrumente der Umweltpolitik

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for the use of economic instruments in environmental policy. This article presents the theoretical foundations for environmental policy and concepts of economic instruments. The advantages and disadvantages of the main instruments for environmental policy are discussed. Considering the present use of instruments, there seems to be a wide scope for efficiency gains through economic instruments. The dominance of command and control instruments in the German environmental policy should be reduced gradually but systematically.