Sustainable development and North-South trade

Chichilnisky, Graciela (1998): Sustainable development and North-South trade. Published in: Protection of Global Biodiversity (0198): pp. 101-117.

Abstract

The present acceleration of environmental destruction can be linked to the economic trading strategies that came into vogue after World War II. The theory of comparative advantages of trade, which recommends that developing countries emphasize resource exports and exports of labor-intensive products, has proven devastating to both the economies and environments of Latin America and Africa. In contrast, the Asian Tigers approach based on external economies of scale, has generated knowledge-intensive products where benefits spread across whole industries and whole economies, leading to more economic growth with much less environmental degradation. Such an approach should be promoted throughout the world trading system instead of the resource-intensive patterns of growth that continue to threaten our global environment. This is particularly important because other resource-conserving strategies, such as green accounting and property rights regimes, remain politically unattainable.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: economic development; knowledge revolution; sustainable development; international trade; global environment; biodiversity; policy
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development ; Environment and Trade ; Sustainability ; Environmental Accounts and Accounting ; Environmental Equity ; Population Growth; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q55 - Technological Innovation; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

References

Bromley, D. W. 1991. Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Chichilnisky, G. 1977a. Economic development and efficiency criteria in the satisfaction of basic needs. Applied Mathematical Modeling 1:290-97.

Chichilnisky, G. 1977b. Development patterns and the international order. Journal of International Affairs. 31:275-304.

Chichilnisky, G. 1982. Basic needs and resources in the North-South debate. World Orders Models Project, Working Paper No. 21. New York: Institute for World Order.

Chichilnisky, G. 1992. Traditional comparative advantages and economics of scale: NAFTA and the GATT United Nations project on trade liberalization in the Americas. Journal of International Comparative Economics 20:147-81.

Chichilnisky, G. 1994a. Comment: The abatement of carbon emissions in industrial and developing countries. In The Economics of Climate Change, edited by T Jones. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Chichilnisky, G. 1994b. North-South trade and the global environment: Technical report no. 31, Stanford Institute of Theoretical Economics, 1992. American Economic Review 84:851.

Chichilnisky, G. 1994c. Property rights on renewable resources and the dynamics of North-South trade. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chichilnisky, G., and G. Ileal. 1994. Who should abate carbon emissions? An international perspective. Economics Letters 32:443-49.

Chichilnisky, G., G. Heal, arid D. Starrett.1993. Equity and Efficiency in International Markets with Emission Permits. Publication No. 81. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Center for Economic Policy Research.

Dasgupta, P., and G. Heal. 1979. Economic Theory arid Exhaustible Resources. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Fidler, S. 1995. An information age society is booming. Financial Times, 26 April.

Harris, D. 1994. Determinants of Aggregate Export Performance of Caribbean Countries: A Comparative Analysis of Barbados, Costa Rica, Dorrrbrican Reprtblic, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago. Stanford, Calif.: International Development Rank and Department of Economics

Herrera, A., R. Scolnik, and G. Chichilnisky. 1976. Catastrophe or New Society? A Latin American World Model. Ottawa: International Development Research Center.

Kalin, M.T., P.H. Raven, and J. Sarukhan. 1992. Biodiversity. In An Agenda of Science for Environment and Development in the twenty-first Century, edited by J. Dodge, G. Goodman, arid J. la Riviere. New York: Cambridge University Press.

WRI (World Resources Institute), UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), and UNDP (United Nations Development Program). 1994. World Resources: People and the Environment, 1994 - 95. A Guide to the Global Environment. New York: Oxford University Press.

WRI (World Resources Institute), UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), and UNDP (United Nations Development Program). 1995. (World Resources: The Urban Environment, 1995-96. New York: Oxford University Press.