The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), previously known as the Political Economy Research Center, is a
free market environmental think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
based in
Bozeman, Montana,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Established in 1980,
PERC is dedicated to original research on market approaches to resolving environmental problems.
History
PERC began as an intellectual collaboration between economists
John Baden and
Richard L. Stroup. PERC started with a simple question: "If markets can produce bread and cars, why can't they produce environmental quality?"
In 1978, the two men established the Center for Political Economy and Natural Resources at
Montana State University with the help of
Terry L. Anderson, P.J. Hill and Ronald Johnson. Later, they founded PERC as a free-standing research institution with the goal of showing that economic freedom can improve environmental quality.
While PERC later adopted the term "free market environmentalism," the original concept was called the New Resource Economics, which was discussed in an article by Terry Anderson in the ''American Journal of Agricultural Economics''. As Anderson indicated in his article in the AJAE, the New Resource Economics combined neoclassical economics, property rights, public choice, and Austrian economics.
Notable former board members, fellows and alumni include
Henry N. Butler,
Jonathan H. Adler,
Gary Libecap,
Bart Wilson,
Jane S. Shaw and
Bruce Yandle
Bruce Yandle (born August 12, 1933) is Dean Emeritus of Clemson University's College of Business and Behavioral Science and Alumni Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Clemson. He is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Economics at t ...
.
Outreach
PERC engages in research and advocacy related to free-market environmentalism and is active on issues including endangered species, water, pollution, and public lands.
[ PERC says that government policy is the root cause of much environmental degradation. ''The Dust Bowl Reconsidered'', for instance, blames the federal ]Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of t ...
for accelerating erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...
problems by limiting claims of newly settled land to 160-320 acre (0.65 to 1.3 km²) parcels. According to this article, fragmented land ownership reduced the incentives for implementing erosion countermeasures and made it difficult for farmers to negotiate contracts for voluntary soil conservation.developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
. For instance, a 2005 ''PERC Report'' noted that farmers were growing chili pepper
Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...
s along the boundaries of their fields to prevent elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...
s from damaging their crops, since elephants find spicy foods unpalatable. The chili peppers are cheaper than electric fence
An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shocks to deter people or animals from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from discomfort to death. Most electric fences are used for agricultural fencing a ...
s and can be sold as a cash crop.
PERC seeks to influence public policy by publishing guides for Congressional staff and organizing weeklong seminars for undergraduates. The organization's monthly publication, PERC Reports, regularly features articles questioning assumptions that form the basis of U.S. federal environmental law.
References
External links
*
PERC on Ballotpedia
{{Authority control
Environmental organizations based in Montana
Political and economic think tanks in the United States
1982 establishments in Montana
Non-profit organizations based in Montana