Sustainability and the measurement of wealth

Environment and Development Economics - Tập 17 Số 3 - Trang 317-353 - 2012
Kenneth J. Arrow1, Partha Dasgupta2, Lawrence H. Goulder3, Kevin J. Mumford4, Kirsten L.L. Oleson5
1Department of Economics, Stanford University, USA. Email: [email protected]
2Department of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK. Email: [email protected]
3Department of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Email: [email protected]
4Department of Economics, Purdue University, USA. Email: [email protected]
5Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii, USA. Email: [email protected]

Tóm tắt

AbstractWe develop and apply a consistent and comprehensive theoretical framework for assessing whether economic growth is compatible with sustaining wellbeing over time. Our approach differs from earlier approaches by concentrating on wealth rather than income. Sustainability is demonstrated by showing that a properly defined comprehensive measure of wealth is maintained through time. Our wealth measure is unusually comprehensive, capturing not only reproducible and human capital but also natural capital, health improvements and technological change. We apply the framework to five countries: the United States, China, Brazil, India and Venezuela. We show that the often-neglected contributors to wealth – technological change, natural capital and health capital – fundamentally affect the conclusions one draws about whether given nations are achieving sustainability. Indeed, even countries that display sustainability differ considerably in the kinds of capital that contribute to it.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

1987, Our Common Future

10.1023/A:1025598106257

2006, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2006

Pezzey J. (1992), ‘Sustainable development concepts: an economic analysis’, World Bank Environment Paper No. 2, World Bank: Washington, DC.

10.1016/0921-8009(93)90039-9

10.1257/jep.23.2.29

10.1086/508033

Lindahl, 1934, Economic Essays in Honor of Gustaf Cassel

10.1016/j.jinteco.2007.02.003

10.1016/0047-2727(95)01527-2

Klenow, 1997, NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1997

Jones C.I. and Klenow P.J. (2010), ‘Beyond GDP? Welfare across countries and time’, Working Paper, September, Stanford University.

10.1111/j.1365-2486.2005.00955.x

Hartwick, 1977, Intergenerational equity and the investing of rents from exhaustible resources, American Economic Review, 66, 972

10.1093/wber/13.2.333

Food and Agriculture Organization (2006), ‘Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005’, United Nations FAO Forestry Paper No. 147. Rome: FAO.

10.1093/0199247889.001.0001

BP (2005), Statistical Review of World Energy, June 2005, [Available at] http://www.bp.com/.

10.1257/0002828053828563

Arrow K.J. , Dasgupta P. , Goulder L.H. , Mumford K. , and Oleson K. (2007), ‘China, the U.S., and sustainability: perspectives based on comprehensive wealth’, Mimeo, Department of Economics, Stanford University.

10.1257/0895330042162377

10.1017/S1355770X00000061

Samuelson, 1961, The Theory of Capital

Nordhaus, 1972, Economic Growth

Bank, 2011, The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium

Bank, 2006, Where is the Wealth of Nations?

Repetto, 1989, Wasting Assets: Natural Resources in the National Income Accounts

10.1111/1467-9442.00068

Nordhaus W.D. (2002), ‘The health of nations: the contribution of improved health to living standards’, NBER Working Paper No. 8818, NBER, Cambridge, MA.

10.2307/2548691

10.2307/2296370

Bank, 1997, Expanding the Measure of Wealth: Indicators of Environmentally Sustainable Development

Nordhaus, 2000, Warming the World: Economic Models of Global Warming, 10.7551/mitpress/7158.001.0001

Klenow, 2005, Handbook of Economic Growth

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Environment and Development Economics

Tập 17 Số 3

317-353

Thông tin tác giả