Peter Victor was my thesis supervisor, so it’s delightful to read his influential paper.
In it, Victor examines several theories of capital to determine how they might deal with sustainability. The first is
The neoclassical school, as expressed by Herfindahl and Kneese. Capital, according the the H-K theory, “yields a flow of productive services over time and… [...]
Category Archives: Ecological Economics
Indicators of sustainable development
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Economic growth and the environment
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
By Grossman and Krueger.
In this paper, Grossman and Krueger trace out the environmental Kuznets curves for pollutants in cities. They study atmospheric and water pollutants. In general, they find that there is a Kuznets relationship, with pollution peaking around the GDP of Mexico or Malaysia.
There conclusions are in line with Arrow et al; Grossman and [...]
Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
This paper, by C.S. Holling, is a primer on ecology. In it, Holling distinguishes between resilience and stability. Stability is the tendency of a population to remain constant in time, even when faced with disruptions. If, say, we pluck out 500 of the 1000 fruitflies in a jar, they will be quickly replaced, reaching the [...]
Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
By Arrow, Bolin, Costanza, Dasgupta et al.
Everybody hopes that growth and environmental quality follow a Kuznets curve: that as our economy grows, we can afford to buy more environmental quality.
This paper, the second most important paper according to Costanza’s list, is pessimistic that environmental quality and economic growth have this relationship.
The authors sensibly divide environmental [...]
The value of the world’s ecosystem services
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
This paper was by Costanza et al. It is the most cited paper in EE.
In The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital, Costanza et al try to place a monetary value on the services of the natural systems of the environment. Marshes, for instance, protect cities from hurricanes. Coral reefs provide habitat [...]
Ecological economics papers
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
One of the difficulties of getting a multi-disciplinary degree is that one never feels certain that one has mastered the disciplines in question
I have an MA in environmental studies. I focussed on ecological economics. I feel I know it quite well, but it is quite hard for me to tell for certain whether I know [...]