Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T15:16:19.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sustainability or the measurement of wealth?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2013

Robert D. Cairns
Robert D. Cairns*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal QC, CanadaH3A 2T7. E-mail: robert.cairns@mcgill.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The theoretical definitions of sustainability proposed in EDE's recent symposium, Sustainability and the Measurement of Wealth, are useful for measuring national wealth but not for measuring sustainability. Moreover, because they are based on market prices and extensions to them, the empirical estimates are not indicators of sustainability. Sustainable development is defined and a theoretic indicator is proposed using maximin theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 18 , Issue 5 , October 2013 , pp. 640 - 648
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arrow, K.J., Dasgupta, P. and Mäler, K.-G. (2003), ‘Evaluating projects and assessing sustainability in imperfect economies’, Environmental and Resource Economics 26: 647–685.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arrow, K.J., Dasgupta, P., Goulder, L.H., Mumford, K.J. and Oleson, K. (2012), ‘Sustainability and the measurement of wealth’, Environment and Development Economics 17: 317–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asheim, G.B. (1994), ‘Net national product as an indicator of sustainability’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics 96: 257–265.Google Scholar
Asheim, G.B. (2007), ‘Can NNP be used for welfare comparisons?’, Environment and Development Economics 12: 11–31.Google Scholar
Cairns, R.D. and Martinet, V. (2012), ‘An environmental-economic measure of sustainable development’, Economix Working Paper No. 2012-2, [Available at] http://economix.fr/fr/dt/2012.php?id=219.Google Scholar
Cairns, R.D. and Tian, H. (2010), ‘Sustained development of a society with a renewable resource’, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 34: 1048–1061.Google Scholar
Chichilnisky, G. (1996), ‘An axiomatic approach to sustainable development’, Social Choice and Welfare 13: 219–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dasgupta, P. and Mäler, K.-G. (1994), ‘The environment and emerging development issues’, in Layard, R. and Glaister, S. (eds), Cost-Benefit Analysis, 2nd edn Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 319–348. Originally published in World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics, 1990.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, P. and Mäler, K.-G. (2000), ‘Net national product, wealth and social well-being’, Environment and Development Economics 5: 69–93.Google Scholar
Hamilton, K. (2012), ‘Comments on Arrow et al., “Sustainability and the measurement of wealth”’, Environment and Development Economics 17: 356–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartwick, J.M. (1977), ‘Intergenerational equity and the investing of rents from exhaustible resources’, American Economic Review 66: 972–974.Google Scholar
Koopmans, T.C. (1960), ‘Stationary ordinal utility and impatience’, Econometrica 28: 287–309.Google Scholar
Martinet, V. and Doyen, L. (2011), ‘Maximin, viability and sustainability’, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 36: 1414–1430.Google Scholar
Pezzey, J.C.V. and Toman, M.A. (2002), ‘Progress and problems in the economics of sustainability’, in Tietenberg, T. and Folmer, H. (eds), International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics 2002–03, Cheltenham: Edward-Elgar, pp. 165–232.Google Scholar
Smulders, S. (2012), ‘An arrow in the Achilles' heel of sustainability and wealth accounting’, Environment and Development Economics 17: 368–372.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1974), ‘Intergenerational equity and exhaustible resources’, Review of Economic Studies 41: 9–45.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (1993), ‘An almost practical step toward sustainability’, Resources Policy 19: 162–172.Google Scholar
Solow, R.M. (2012), ‘A few comments on “Sustainability and the measurement of wealth”’, Environment and Development Economics 17: 354–355.Google Scholar
Withagen, C. and Asheim, G.B. (1998), ‘Characterizing sustainability: the converse of Hartwick's rule’, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 23: 159–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xepapadeas, A. (2012), ‘Introduction: sustainability and the measurement of wealth’, Environment and Development Economics 17: 315–316.Google Scholar