Editing Property and Environment Research Center

{{Short description|Free-market environmentalist group}}
{{Infobox organization
| formation                = {{start date and age|1980}}
| type                     = [[Nonprofit organization|Nonprofit]]
| tax_id                   = 81-0393444
| status                   = [[501(c)(3)]]
| headquarters             = [[Bozeman, Montana]]
| leader_title             = Board Chair
| leader_name              = Loren Bough
| leader_title2            = Executive Director
| leader_name2             = Brian Yablonski
| name                     = Property and Environment Research Center
| revenue                  = $1,830,035<ref name="Ratings">{{cite web | url=http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/810/810393444/810393444_201512_990.pdf?_ga=1.161983292.1400465774.1487149181 | title=Property and Environment Research Center | date= | website=Foundation Center | accessdate=16 February 2017 }}</ref>
| revenue_year             = 2015
| expenses                 = $2,356,797<ref name="Ratings" />
| expenses_year            = 2015
| website                  = {{Official URL}}
| abbreviation             = PERC
| former_name              = Political Economy Research Center
}}

The '''Property and Environment Research Center''' ('''PERC'''), previously known as the '''Political Economy Research Center''', is a [[Free-market environmentalism|free-market environmentalist]] [[think tank]] based in [[Bozeman, Montana]], [[United States]]. Established in 1980,<ref name="history">{{Cite web|url=https://www.perc.org/about-perc/percs-history|title=PERC's History {{!}} PERC – The Property and Environment Research Center|website=www.perc.org|access-date=2017-07-17}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stroup|first1=Richard|last2=Baden|first2=John|date=October 1973|title=Externality, Property Rights, and the Management of Our National Forests|journal=The Journal of Law and Economics|volume=16|issue=2|pages=303–312|doi=10.1086/466768|s2cid=154738820 |issn=0022-2186}}</ref>  PERC started with a simple question: "If markets can produce bread and cars, why can't they produce environmental quality?"<ref name="history" />

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.<ref name="encyclopedia">{{cite book|last1=Frohnen|first1=Bruce|last2=Beer|first2=Jeremy|last3=Jeffrey|first3=Nelson|title=American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia|date=2014|publisher=Open Road Media|isbn=9781497651579}}</ref>

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''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Anderson|first=Terry L.|date=December 1982|title=The New Resource Economics: Old Ideas and New Applications|journal=American Journal of Agricultural Economics|volume=64|issue=5|pages=928–934|doi=10.2307/1240760|jstor=1240760|url=http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/279161/files/aaea-1982-036.pdf}}</ref> 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 [[Tim Sheehy]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dailymontanan.com/2024/06/13/sheehy-didnt-disclose-former-board-membership-at-bozeman-think-tank/|title=Sheehy didn't disclose former board membership at Bozeman think tank • Daily Montanan|first=Blair|last=Miller|date=June 13, 2024}}</ref> [[Henry N. Butler]], [[Jonathan H. Adler]], [[Gary Libecap]], [[Bart Wilson]], [[Jane S. Shaw]], [[Bruce Yandle]].

==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.<ref name=encyclopedia/> PERC says that government policy is the root cause of much [[environmental degradation]]. ''The Dust Bowl Reconsidered'', for instance, blames the federal [[Homestead Act]] for accelerating [[erosion]] problems by limiting claims of newly settled land to 160-320 acre (0.65 to 1.3&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) 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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Benjamin|first1=Daniel|title=The Dust Bowl Reconsidered|url=http://www.perc.org/articles/dust-bowl-reconsidered|accessdate=14 September 2016|publisher=PERC|date=December 10, 2004}}</ref>

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==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{official website}}
* {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|810393444}}
* [https://ballotpedia.org/Property_and_Environment_Research_Center PERC on Ballotpedia]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Environmental organizations based in Montana]]
[[Category:Political and economic think tanks in the United States]]
[[Category:1982 establishments in Montana]]
[[Category:Non-profit organizations based in Montana]]