The impact of the environment on health: growth, uncertainties and inequalities.

Summary My thesis work focused on the study of equivocal interactions between the economic and environmental spheres. A two-way relationship between economic development and the evolution of environmental quality over time has been highlighted through the health of individuals. To do so, I have mobilized nested-generation models that are particularly well suited to describe the dynamic evolution of environmental quality and wealth accumulation when intergenerational externalities appear. The following articles dealt with economic policy, its forms and consequences, in a framework where the health of individuals is determined by environmental conditions. In the continuity of the previous works, the tools used and the approach remain identical. We describe the causal relationships between environmental, health and economic variables and the expected effects of the policies implemented. In response to clearly identified objectives, economic policy recommendations are formulated. The main conclusions of this last work led me to pay more attention to the notion of vulnerability to pollution and to decision making in a context characterized by strong uncertainties. Using new tools borrowed from decision theory in an uncertain world and from welfare economics, I have since focused my research on the foundations of the public decision-making process as well as on the ethical criteria that are adopted when faced with an imperfectly known random exposure to environmental risk.