Are the economic woes afflicting the North American West caused by increasingly strict environmental regulations on natural resource industries such as mining and logging? In "Post-Cowboy Economics", economists Thomas Michael Power and Richard N. Barrett clearly demonstrate that the region's economic misfortunes are not the result of changes in regional industrial structure and that crisis-driven economic development policies and unnecessary -- and often counterproductive. This book is an important work for professionals and scholars involved with environmental policy, economic development, and resource management as well as for anyone interested in the future of the American West. -- From publisher's description.