The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation , Walter E. Block, ed.
The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1990
Using the building blocks of free-market prices, private property rights and a justice system that protects such rights, the international roster of contributors to Economics and the Environment show how the market can be used to attain ecologically sound environmental goals efficiently and effectively. Free enterprise is not the cause of environmental problems, the Fraser book contends, but it can be part of the solution.
Economics and the Environment contains essays by a number of prominent free-market scholars including the late Murray Rothbard and several who have taken a leading role in what has come to be known as the free market environmentalist movement including John Baden, Richard Stroup and Terry Anderson.
One of the first books to suggest that there is no intrinsic conflict between the market and the environment, The Fraser Institute study generated a tremendous amount of discussion and controversy at a time when interest in the environment was on the rise. It immediately sold out of its first printing and eventually went through several printings, fueled in part by the book’s inclusion on a number of university reading lists throughout the United States. At the time of the book’s nomination, Fraser president Michael Walker noted that, ‘some prominent members of the environmental movement who in the past have opposed a free market approach to environmental problems in Canada have already begun to endorse the findings of the book.’
The appeal of Economics and the Environment proved international, with an edition published in Portuguese, segments of the book translated into Spanish, and a parallel English edition produced in Australia with some original Australian content.
The Center for Independent Studies, St. Leonards, Australia
Welfare State or Constitutional State? by Suri Ratnapala
The Centre for Independent Studies Limited, Australia, 1990
In Welfare State or Constitutional State?, author Suri Ratnapala raises important questions about whether the modern welfare state is philosophically and politically consistent with a free society based on individual liberty and the rule of law. Using public choice analysis, the book argues that the rise of the welfare state has been intimately tied to a decline of constitutionalism in Australia, and suggests that welfare reform may hold the key to the general restoration of constitutional order.
In the push to achieve the redistribution aims of the welfare state, Ratnapala argues, the courts have obliterated the strict constitutional distinction between legislation and administration, without which true democracy is impossible. This delegating of substantial law-making power to the executive, free from parliamentary scrutiny, leads to a sharp decline in the democratic accountability of government and the rise of special interest dominance in public policy formulation and distribution processes. The CIS study goes on to suggest, however, that as economic and political pressure prompts a fundamental reevaluation of the ends and means of the welfare state, a proper role for the judiciary may result. Such a restoration of the constitutional distinction between legislation and administration can have a welfare policy reflecting genuine points of agreement among the public.
According to one reviewer, Welfare State or Constitutional State? introduces ‘a set of issues that should indeed be addressed and debated by political leaders, legal scholars [and] philosophers.’
Centro de Estudios Publicos, Santiago, Chile
Para Combatir la Pobreza en Chile: Política Social y Descentralización en Chile durante los ’80 (Combating Poverty: Innovative Social Reforms in Chile During the 1980s) , by Tarsicio Castañeda
Centro de Estudios Publicos, Santiago, Chile, 1990
During the 1980s, Chile embarked on several groundbreaking market-oriented reforms that became models in Latin America and around the world. Para Combatir La Pobreza offers an absorbing account of the massive effort in which the country, using vouchers, private service providers and decentralized control of social programs, launched bold reforms in education, health care, low-income housing and social security.
The book garnered praise from economists, public policy leaders and government officials for its clear, insightful analysis, which described both the successes of Chile’s innovative social policy experiment, as well as the obstacles encountered along the way.
In the wake of the debt crisis, most Latin American countries started to revise and redefine the role of the state in the social sector. Para Combatir La Pobreza serves as a guidebook for those seeking reform, offering systematic and coherent policy recommendations. The book was distributed to many public institutions and research centers, attracting the attention of United Nations advisors, government officials and World Bank development officers.
In 1992, an English translation of the book was published by the International Center for Economic Growth, Panama.
National Center for Policy Analysis, Dallas, TX
Taxation and the Elderly: A Three-Study Project
‘The Elderly: People the Supply-Side Revolution Forgot’ by John C. Goodman and A. James Meigs (NCPA, Dallas, TX, 1989)
‘Taxing the Savings of Elderly Americans’ by Aldona Robbins and Gary Robbins (NCPA, Dallas, TX, 1989)
‘Paying People Not to Work: The Economic costs of the Social Security Retirement Earnings Limit’ by Aldona Robbins and Gary Robbins (NCPA, Dallas, TX, 1989)
In November of 1990, the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act was repealed by Congress, the first piece of federal welfare legislation to be repealed in over 100 years. Only ten months earlier, the Congressional leadership had been adamant that there would be no change in the provisions of the act, but that was before the National Center for Policy Analysis published its Taxation and the Elderly series. Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman credited NCPA’s three-study project with helping to turn Congress around on the issue and winning the battle to repeal the act. The series also established a policy basis for later proposals to reform IRAs and eliminate the Social Security earnings penalty.
The NCPA study exposed the high marginal tax rates imposed on the elderly through the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act and the Social Security earnings penalty, and illustrated how the tax system destroys the value of Individual Retirement Accounts for many young workers. The important research and analysis was complemented by an impressive marketing campaign, which insured that the studies’ findings received a hearing from both policy makers and the general public. Copies of the NCPA’s studies were distributed to members of Congress, and the NCPA sponsored Congressional briefings for House and Senate members. At the same time, the findings were the subject of extensive national media coverage. Thanks to NCPA, the public and lawmakers received the information necessary to engage in an intelligent debate on the issue and develop responsible policy solutions.
Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, Boston, MA
Work and Welfare in Massachusetts by June O’Neill
Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, Boston, MA, 1990
David against a government-sponsored Goliath, the Pioneer Institute’s Work and Welfare in Massachusetts helped spark a national debate when it questioned the effectiveness of one of Massachusetts’ most talked about social policy projects of the early 1990s, the Employment and Training Choices program. The relatively inexpensive Pioneer study challenged the findings of several high-priced government-sponsored studies of the program, which supporters claimed saved the state millions of dollars by helping welfare recipients improve their job skills. In doing so, the Pioneer Institute provided an important reminder of the need for independent research and analysis.
Since its introduction in 1983, the Employment and Training Choices program had been widely applauded as a creative response to the problem of chronic welfare. State leaders like Gov. Michael Dukakis took every opportunity to celebrate the program’s success, but these claims were based on government-sponsored research that had generally found in the numbers exactly what the government wanted to hear, and had failed to ask the tough questions necessary to produce an accurate assessment. Economist June O’Neill, unhampered by the influence of government funding, took the same data and, through careful analysis, reached a very different conclusion, providing what a Washington Post editorial lauded as a ‘useful stripping away of reputation in favor of fact.’
O’Neill’s work revealed that instead of saving the taxpayers money, as advocates claimed, the program had actually cost the taxpayers more than $200 million between 1984 and 1988 and had contributed little or nothing to a reduction in the welfare caseload in Massachusetts.
The impact of the book was far-reaching. In addition to igniting a media storm in Massachusetts, the report’s findings were carried in several important national publications and helped spark debate about similar programs being tried or considered in several other states. In Massachusetts and New York, the study’s findings led lawmakers to reevaluate and ultimately to modify their approach to welfare reform.
Instituto Liberal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action (Acão Humana)
Portuguese translation by Donald Stewart, Jr.
Instituto Liberal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1990
Special Translation Award
While the Fisher Awards traditionally recognize the impact of original works, institutes around the world are making equally important contributions by translating and distributing seminal works, helping ideas to reach across cultures and, inspire exciting new lines of thought. In 1991, the Fisher Awards recognized one of the most ambitious of these projects, Instituto Liberal’s Portuguese translation of Ludwig von Mises’ magnum opus, Human Action.
Instituto Liberal sought to expand the economic debate in Brazil at a time when the literature of the country was dominated by interventionist and statist thinking. Donald Stewart, the founder of Instituto Liberal, dedicated three years of his life to translating the classic statement of Austrian economics. To obtain the high quality product they desired, the institute spent a great deal of energy and resources carrying out research and doing comparisons with the French and Spanish editions of the book. The result was a work that, over a decade later, continues to have an impact in Brazil, where it has sold over 3,000 copies.
The translation project also had a positive impact on Instituto Liberal, helping to raise the profile of the institute. According to president Arthur Diniz, Acão Humana ‘has been important in improving the number of supporters and branches of the institute in Brazil.’ It also solicited this kind letter from Mises’ widow, Margit von Mises, dated April 21, 1991: ‘Congratulations to the Instituto Liberal and Donald Stewart, Jr., for the monumental project of translating Human Action into Portuguese. It must have taken a great deal of time, hard work and effort. Human Action was my late husband?s crowning achievement and I am grateful to you for helping to expand its readership.’
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