Peter A. Victor

Ecological economics and economic growth

17 pages · 4.26 EUR
(October 2011)

I agree with the terms and conditions, especially point 10 (only private use, no transmission to third party)

From the introduction:

In the final chapter, "Ecological economics and economic growth", Peter Victor addresses similarly long-run issues. He reassesses Kenneth Boulding?s work on the economics of spaceship Earth that established the framework for ecological economics and an understanding of economic growth. In ecological economics, economies are conceptualised as open subsystems of the closed biosphere and are subject to biophysical laws and constraints. Economic growth measured as an increase in real GDP has generally been associated with increases in the use of energy and materials and the generation of waste. Scale, composition, and technology are the proximate determinants of environmental impacts. They are often reduced to two dimensions: scale (GDP) and intensity (impact per unit GDP). Victor reviews new work in this area that defines "green" growth as intensity that declines faster than scale increases. Similarly, "brown" growth occurs when intensity declines more slowly than increases in scale, and "black" growth happens when both scale and intensity increase. These concepts are then related to the environmental Kuznets curve, which can be understood as a transition from brown to green growth. In Victor's assessment, ecological economics provides a macroperspective on economic growth. It offers broad policy principles, and it challenges the primacy of economic growth as a policy objective, but many important questions remain, Victor concludes.