environmental economics A recognized field of specialization in the discipline of Economics that embraces the issues of pollution control and environment protection, in which costs and benefits are difficult or impossible to estimate, much of the subject matter falling outside the competitive market system. Yet, it is an area in which immense common property resources need to be allocated sensibly to the overall public good. The subject is also very much concerned with ways and means to achieve this sensible allocation such as emission and effluent charges, user charges for the treatment or disposal of waste, environmental taxes, product charges, deposit refunds, tradeable pollution rights, performance bonds, natural resource accounting, and the economic implications of sustainable development