The Old Man and the SNI: A review of advance and adversity in Hueting's research in economic growth and the new scarcity from the environment and sustainable national income (SNI)

Colignatus, Thomas (2008): The Old Man and the SNI: A review of advance and adversity in Hueting's research in economic growth and the new scarcity from the environment and sustainable national income (SNI).

Abstract

Roefie Hueting (1929), recently turned 79 years of age, has been working on the subject of economics and the environment since around 1965. Seminal results are his notion of environmental functions (WWF, 1969), his Ph.D. thesis “New Scarcity and Economic Growth. More welfare through less production ?” (1974), the definition of (environmentally) sustainable national income (eSNI, UNEP/Worldbank 1989), the eSNI methodology (CBS Statistics Netherlands 1992) and his contributions to the 1999 Hueting Congress (presentation and rejoinders, 2001bc). The figure of national income NI gives production while the figure of eSNI gives the production level that maintains the availability for future generations of the vital environmental functions. For many economists, the current focus is on climate change but the ecological challenge is much wider and more fundamental, see also the Convention on Biological Diversity, Bonn 2008. The figure for eSNI still isn’t included in the system of national accounts (SNA) which means that current statistical reporting on national income and economic growth provides incomplete information to policy makers and the general public. With the dictum “What you measure is what you get”, we currently get “economic growth” that works against sustainability. This review provides a reflection on advance and adversity in 40 years of Hueting’s research in a world that only slowly recognizes the global environmental problem. How do governments decide under risk, how do they grow aware of that very risk, what is the role of the national statistical offices in providing information on that risk, especially when that risk concerns survival for large sections of the planet ? The reflection provides insights that themselves are useful for our understanding of the political economy of research on issues that are politically sensitive.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Social welfare; national income; sustainable national income; economic growth; sustainable economic growth; sustainability; environment
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q0 - General > Q01 - Sustainable Development; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E0 - General > E01 - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth ; Environmental Accounts; A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A11 - Role of Economics ; Role of Economists ; Market for Economists

References

Bos, F. (1995), ‘Economic theory and national accounting’, CBS Statistics Netherlands NA-075

Bos, F. (2003), ‘The national accounts as a tool for analysis and policy; past, present and future’, thesis University Twente, http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/1235/

Bos, F. (2007), ‘Use, misuse and proper use of national accounts statistics’, National accounts occasional paper Nr. NA-096, CBS Statistics Netherlands Voorburg, http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2576

Braat, L. and P. ten Brink (eds), (2008), ‘The Cost of Policy Inaction. The case of not meeting the 2010 biodiversity target’, Alterra, Wageningen / Brussels, study for the European Commission, DG Environment, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/economics/pdf/copi.zip

CBS (1972d), ‘Waterverontreiniging met afbreekbaar organisch en eutrofiërend materiaal’, CBS Statistics Netherlands, SDU The Hague (‘Water pollution with decomposable and eutrofying materials’)

Central Planning Bureau (CPB) (1972), ‘Economische gevolgen van de bestrijding van waterverontreiniging met afbreekbaar organisch materiaal’, Monograph 16, The Hague (‘Economic consequences of the abatement of water pollution with decomposable organic materials’)

Central Planning Bureau (CPB) (1992), ‘Scanning the future’, Sdu The Hague

Colignatus, Th. (2000), ‘The choice on sustainability: information or the meta-SWF approach to a shift of preferences’, http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wpawuwpot/0004004.htm

Colignatus, Th. (2001), ‘Roefie Hueting and Sustainable National Income’, translation of ESB, August 24, p652-653, available at www.sni-hueting.info

Colignatus, Th. (2008), ‘On the political economy of environmental survival versus collapse. Clarifying the work done by Tinbergen & Hueting vis-à-vis Weitzman, Nordhaus and Stern’, Samuel van Houten Genootschap working paper, http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10001/

Costanza, R. (2003). ‘The early history of ecological economics and the international society for ecological economics (ISEE)’, ISEE, Internet Encyclopaedia of Ecological Economics

Costanza, R., D. I. Stern, B. P. Fisher, L. He and C. Ma (2004), ‘Influential Publications in Ecological Economics: A Citation Analysis’, Rensselaer Working Papers in Economics No 0408

Costanza, R., R. d’Arge, R. de Groot, S. Farber, Monica Grasso, B. Hannon, K. Limburg, S. Naeem, R.V. O'Neill, J. Paruelo, R.G. Raskin, P. Sutton and M. van den Belt (1997), ‘The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital’, Nature 387, May 15, p253 – 260

Daly, H. (2001), ‘Roefie Hueting’s perpendicular ‘demand curve’ and the issue of objective value’, in Van Ierland et al. (2001) p137-150

Diamond, J. (2005), ‘Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed’, Viking

Goodland, R. (2001), ‘An appreciation of Dr Roefie Hueting’s ecological work’, in Van Ierland et al. (2001) p315-332

Gore, A. and D. Guggenheim (2006), An inconvenient truth, Paramount

Haan, M. de, S.J. Keuning (1996), ‘Taking the environment into account: the NAMEA approach’, Review of Income and Wealth 42 (2) , 131–148

Hecht, J.E. (2007), ‘National Environmental Accounting: A Practical Introduction’, International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, 1: 03–66

Hemingway, E. (2004), The Old Man and the Sea, Arrow books Hicks (1983), Collected essays on economic theory, volume III; Classics and moderns, Blackwell

Hofkes, M. W., R. Gerlagh and V. Linderhof (2004), ‘Sustainable National Income: A Trend Analysis for the Netherlands for 1990-2000’, Institute for Environmental Studies, Report R-04/02, June 28, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1009284

Hueting, R. (1969), 'Functions of Nature: Should Nature be Quantified?', London, World Wildlife Fund

Hueting, R. (1974, 1980), New Scarcity and Economic Growth: More Welfare Through Less Production?, Dutch edition: Agon Elsevier, Amsterdam; English edition: North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, New York, Oxford, 1980

Hueting, R. (1981a), ‘Comments on the report “A Low Energy Strategy for the United Kingdom”, compiled by G. Leach et al. for The International Institute for the Environment and Development (IIED)’, Working Party on Integral Energy Scenarios, The Hague, 20 May

Hueting, R. (1981b), 'De relatie tussen produktiegroei en energieverbruik, maakt groeifanatisme blind?' ESB, nr. 3310, p. 609-611

Hueting, R. (1986b), ‘A Note on the Construction of an Environmental Indicator in Monetary Terms as a Supplement to National Income with the Aid of Basic Environmental Statistics’, Report to Prof. Dr. E. Salim, Minister of Population and Environment, Indonesia. Jakarta, March

Hueting, R. (1989), ‘Correcting National Income for Environmental Losses: Towards a Practical Solution’, in (Y. Ahmad, S. El Serafy, E. Lutz (eds.)), Environmental Accounting for Sustainable Development, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 100 p

Hueting, R. (2001a), ‘The Parable of the Carpenter’, (with Bart de Boer), International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 15(1), pp. 42-50

Hueting, R. (2001b), ‘Rejoinders to symposium authors: Ekins, Daly, Norgaard et al., Beckerman, El Serafy, Pearce et al., Faucheux and O’Connor, Verbruggen et al., Goodland and Mäler’, pp 333-378 in (E.C. van Ierland, J. van der Straaten and H.R.J. Vollebergh (eds)), Economic growth and valuation of the environment, A debate, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK – Northhampton, MA, USA

Hueting, R. (2003), ‘Ter overpeinzing op het wijde water. Voor Henk van Tuinen bij zijn afscheid van het CBS, van een vriend’, (‘To think about while sailing the seas. For Henk van Tuinen at his departure, from a friend’) April, http://www.sni-hueting.info/NL/index.html

Hueting, R. (2006), ‘Het DNI & politieke belemmeringen’, (‘eSNI and political impediments’) ((http://www.managementissues.com/duurzame_ontwikkeling/ duurzame_ontwikkeling/het_dni_&_politieke_belemmeringen._20060605373.html

Hueting, R. (2008), ‘Why environmental sustainability can most probably not be attained with growing production’, Conference on “Economic de-growth for ecological sustainability and social equity”, Paris, 18-19 April 2008

Hueting, R. and B. de Boer (2001c), ‘Environmental valuation and sustainable national income according to Hueting’, p17-77 in (E.C. van Ierland, J. van der Straaten and H.R.J. Vollebergh (eds)), Economic growth and valuation of the environment, A debate, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK – Northhampton, MA, USA

Hueting, R. and L. Reijnders (2004), ‘Broad Sustainability contra Sustainability: The proper Construction of Sustainability Indicators’, Ecological Economics 50, 249-260

Hueting, R., L. Reijnders, B. de Boer, J. Lambooy and H. Jansen (1998), ‘The Concept of Environmental Function and its Valuation, Ecological Economics 25(1): 31-35

Hueting, R., P. Bosch and B. de Boer (1992), ‘Methodology for the Calculation of Sustainable National Income’, Statistical Essays, M44, CBS Statistics Netherlands, SDU/Publishers, ‘s-Gravenhage 64 p. Also published as WWF International report, Gland, Switzerland, June 1992

Ierland, E. C. van, J. van der Straaten and H.R.J. Vollebergh (2001), Economic Growth and the Valuation of the Environment, A Debate, Edward Elgar

Kapp, K.W. (1950), The social costs of private enterprise, Cambridge (Mass.)

Katsman, C., e.a. (2007), ‘Zee rijst, maar niet de pan uit’, NRC-Handelsblad 19 januari (‘Sea rises, but not over the dikes’)

Keuning, S.J. (1992), ‘National accounts and the environment: The case for a system’s approach’, CBS Statistics Netherlands, Occasional Paper Nr. NA-053

Keuning, S.J. (1995, 1996), Accounting for economic development and social change, IOS Press, Amsterdam

Keuning, S.J. (1996), ‘De fictie van een Groen Nationaal Inkomen’, S&D p479-483

Koopmans, T.C. (1947), “Measurement without Theory”, Review of Economic Statistics, vol XXIX, No 3, August, p161-172, see http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/koopmans.htm

Lecq, S.G. van der (ed) (2001), ‘Dossier Vernieuwende statistieken’, ESB jaargang 86, no 4299 March 15

Lecq, S.G. van der (ed) (2005), ‘Dossier Ontkoppeling van milieu en economie’, ESB jaargang 90 no 4461 June 2

Meadows, D.H. (1972), The limits to growth, New York

Mishan, E.J. (1967, 1993), The Costs of Economic Growth, Greenwood Press

MNP, Milieu- en natuur planbureau (2006), ‘Milieubalans 2006’, http://www.mnp.nl/bibliotheek/rapporten/500081001.pdf

Passenier, J. (1994), Van planning naar scanning. Een halve eeuw Planbureau in Nederland, Wolters-Noordhoff

Pearce, D. (1998), ‘Auditing the Earth: The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital,’ Environment, vol. 40, no. 2 (March)

Pearce, D., K. Hamilton and G. Atkinson (2001), ‘Valuing nature’, in Van Ierland et al. (2001), p211-224

Reich, U.-P. (1993), ‘The Dutch school of thought in national accounts’, in De Vries e.a. (1993) p257-268

Robles, M. (1997), ‘Oplaaiende ruzies over Groen Nationaal Inkomen’, Intermediair, 13 maart, 33e jaargang nummer 11, p55 and 57

Røpke, I. (2004), ‘The early history of modern ecological economics’, Ecological Economics 50, p293– 314

Serafy, S. el (1998), ‘Pricing the invaluable: the value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital’, Ecological Economics, vol. 25, issue 1, pages 25-27

Smith, R. (2006), ‘Development of the SEEA 2003 and its implementation’, Ecological Economics, Volume 61, Issue 4, 15 March 2007, Pages 592-599

Stauvermann P.J. (2006), ‘Why and How Should We Account For the Environment?’, Rensselaer Working Papers in Economics, http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/rpirpiwpe/0606.htm

Stern, N. (2006), The economics of climate change: Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, Cambridge

The Economist (1998), ‘An Invaluable Environment’, April 16

Tinbergen, J. (1985), ‘Production, income and welfare: The search for the optimal social order’, Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln & London, Wheatsheaf Books

Tinbergen, J. (1993), ‘Origin of national accounts and relation to economic theory’, in De Vries e.a. (1993), p13-17

Tinbergen, J. and R. Hueting (1991), ‘GNP and Market Prices: Wrong Signals for Sustainable Economic Success that Mask Environmental Destruction’, (with Jan Tinbergen). In (R. Goodland, H. Daly, S. El Serafy and B. von Droste zu Hulshoff (eds)), Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development: Building on Brundtland, Ch 4: 51-57, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris, 1991. Also published in (R. Goodland et al. (eds)), Population, Technology and Lifestyle: The Transition to Sustainability, Ch. 4: 52-62. Island Press, (c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and UNESCO, Washington, D.C., 1992. Also published in (R. Goodland et al. (eds)), Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development: Building on Brundtland, Environment Working Paper 46, The World Bank, Washington, D.C.

Tuinen, H.K. van (1975), ‘Het begrip nationaal inkomen: corrigeren of niet?’, ESB 5-3-1975 p221-224

Tuinen, H.K. van (1993), ‘Issues in Dutch national accounting 1970-1985’, in De Vries e.a. (1993) p19-31

Tuinen, H.K. van (2008), ‘Innovative Statistics to Improve our Notion of Reality’, paper for the OECD Global Project - Measuring the Progress of Societies, Conference, June 27-30 2007, Istanbul, Turkey, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/5/59/38780056.pdf

Turner, T. (2005), ‘The Blueprint Legacy – a review of Professor David Pearce’s contribution to environmental economics and policy’, CSERGE Working Paper PA 05-01, http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/pub/wp/pa/pa_2005_01.pdf

UN, EU, IMF and OECD (2003), ‘Handbook on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA 2003)’, Unstat, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/61 REV.1 (Final Draft)

Verbruggen, H., R.B. Dellink, R. Gerlach, M.W. Hofkes and H.M.A. Jansen (2001), ‘Alternative calculations of a sustainable national income for the Netherlands according to Hueting’, in Van Ierland (2001) p275-312

Vries, W.F.M. de, e.a. (eds) (1993), The Value Added of National Accounting: Commemorating 50 years of national accounts in the Netherlands, CBS Statistics Netherlands

World Bank (2000), ‘Beyond economic growth’, Chapter IX. Growth of the Service Sector, http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/beyond/global/chapter9.html

World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (a.k.a. Brundtland Commission) (1987), Our common future, Oxford University Press