A Theoretical Inquiry into Voluntary Cost-bearing of Environmental Conservation:

Implications of Amartya Sen's ‘Commitment’

Abstract

The ‘voluntary commitment’ principle has been proposed as a theory of voluntary cost-bearing in environmental conservation. Up until now, Amartya Sen's ‘commitment’ has been referred to in order to justify this cost-bearing principle. In this article, I delineate the misinterpretation of the ‘commitment’ in previous literature and argue that the concept should be understood as a conceptual device to analyse cost-bearing in practice, instead of a justification to institutionalise cost-bearing, in light of what Sen (1977) meant by the concept. This understanding reveals that analysis through the lens of ‘commitment’ can grasp a possible shift in responsibility toward voluntary cost-bearing, which cannot be perceived in an economic framework assuming monistic preferences. The analysis can thereby provide some insights regarding policy-making.