ABSTRACT
The literature in environmental economics is mainly concerned with (the correction of) market failure and the issue of allocation. The aim of this paper is to present a thorough (theoretical) investigation of the benefits from environmental commodities and of their effect on the income distribution. The article introduces an appropriate framework, discusses concepts for measuring and imputing benefits, offers a methodology for considering benefit incidence, and examines the determinants of progressivity/regressivity within this setup. Knowledge of the distributional effects of environmental goods is indispensable when the implications of environmental policy to the income distribution have to be derived (taking into account costs, as well).
