Sustainability in Growth Models

Zeelenberg, Kees and de Boer, Bart and Brouwer, Roy (1997): Sustainability in Growth Models.

Abstract

We study the relation between sustainability and national income in a neoclassical growth model with one product, which is used both as consumption good and investment good, and one natural resource, which is used in production. We analyse the possibilities for an indicator of sustainability, looking in particular at two indicators: the change in real national wealth and the ratio between sustainable constant consumption and actual consumption. It appears that both indicators can only be computed if the sustainable path of the economy is first computed, ànd that they must be computed for the whole future path of the economy, so that it is not sufficient to compute them for a single time period. For official statistics this means that sustainability indicators can only be computed by means of an economic model, and cannot be measured with actual data only.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: environment; sustainability; economic growth
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C8 - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology ; Computer Programs > C82 - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data ; Data Access; 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

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