Comparing Augmented Sustainability Measures for Scotland: Is There a Mismatch?

We estimate and compare two empirical measures of the weak sustainability of an economy for the first time: the change in augmented Green Net National Product (GNNP), and the interest on augmented Genuine Savings (GS). Yearly calculations are given for each measure for Scotland during 1992-1999. Augmentation means including, using projections to 2020, changed production possibilities enabled by exogenous technical progress or changing oil prices. The change in augmented GNNP and the interest on augmented GS are both always positive, showing no sustainability problem for Scotland then, according to the assumptions underlying our weak sustainability calculations. However, the former greatly exceeds the latter, even when macroeconomic fluctuations are taken into account. This is a mismatch which poses an unresolved problem with the theory. Resolving it may require respecifying the utility functions used in mainstream growth theory.

[1]  Robert E. Wright,et al.  Contingent Valuation Versus Choice Experiments: Estimating the Benefits of Environmentally Sensitive Areas in Scotland , 2008 .

[2]  Michael A. Clemens,et al.  Genuine Savings Rates in Developing Countries , 1999 .

[3]  John M. Hartwick,et al.  Natural Resources, National Accounting and Economic Depreciation , 1990 .

[4]  John M. Hartwick,et al.  Resource Depletion and Sustainability in Small Open Economies , 1997 .

[5]  Sunny L. Jardine,et al.  Ecological Economics , 2019, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

[6]  Ari Rabl,et al.  Health risks of air pollution from incinerators: a perspective , 1998 .

[7]  Frans Berkhout,et al.  Negotiating Environmental Change , 2003 .

[8]  Martin L. Weitzman,et al.  Sustainability and Technical Progress , 1997 .

[9]  Pollution And Pollution Abatement In The National Accounts , 1996 .

[10]  John C. V. Pezzey,et al.  Sustainability Constraints versus "Optimality" versus Intertemporal Concern, and Axioms versus Data , 1997 .

[11]  Mary O'Mahony,et al.  A perspective on UK productivity performance , 2005 .

[12]  Geir B. Asheim,et al.  Green National Accounting for Welfare and Sustainability: A Taxonomy of Assumptions and Results , 2002, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[13]  Mohan Munasinghe,et al.  Measuring sustainable development: macroeconomics and the environment. , 1997 .

[14]  R. Howarth.  Status effects and environmental externalities , 1996 .

[15]  Michael A. Toman,et al.  Progress and Problems in the Economics of Sustainability , 2002 .

[16]  John C. V. Pezzey,et al.  One-sided sustainability tests with amenities, and changes in technology, trade and population , 2004 .

[17]  D. Pearce.  The Social Cost of Carbon and its Policy Implications , 2003 .

[18]  K. Hamilton,et al.  Air pollution and green accounts , 1996 .

[19]  Valuing changes in life expectancy in England and Wales caused by ambient concentrations of particulate matter , 1998 .

[20]  R. Howarth,et al.  Status, Growth and the Environment: Goods As Symbols in Applied Welfare Economics , 2003 .

[21]  Henk Folmer,et al.  The International Yearbook of Environmental Resource Economics 2001/2002 , 2001 .

[22]  Abdelhak S. Senhadji.  Sources of Economic Growth: An Extensive Growth Accounting Exercise , 1999, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[23]  M. Weitzman,et al.  Does NNP Growth Indicate Welfare Improvement , 2001 .

[24]  K. Turner.  A pilot study on constructing a Scottish sectoral CO2 emissions account , 2003 .

[25]  H. Folmer,et al.  International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics 2003-2004 , 2001 .

[26]  P. Dasgupta.  Valuing Objects and Evaluating Policies in Imperfect Economies , 2001 .

[27]  Annegrete Bruvoll,et al.  Quantifying Central Hypotheses on Environmental Kuznets Curves for a Rich Economy: A Computable General Equilibrium Study , 2003 .

[28]  T. Doggett.  United Kingdom national accounts : concepts, sources and methods , 1998 .

[29]  Ian H. Rowlands,et al.  Valuing climate change: the economics of the greenhouse , 1995 .

[30]  Ian Moffatt,et al.  Measuring sustainability: A time series of alternative indicators for Scotland , 1999 .

[31]  Tore Söderqvist,et al.  Elasticities of Demand and Willingness to Pay for Environmental Services in Sweden , 2003 .

[32]  D. Ulph,et al.  Measuring Income and Measuring Sustainability , 2001 .

[33]  Frans Berkhout,et al.  Negotiating Environmental Change: New Perspectives from Social Science , 2003 .