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Principles of Sustainable Economic Growth and Development: A Call to Action in a Post-COVID-19 World

Author

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  • Victor I. Espinosa

    (Department of Business Administration, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Providencia 7500912, Chile)

  • Miguel A. Alonso Neira

    (Department of Applied Economics I, History and Economic Institutions and Moral Philosophy, Social and Legal Sciences Faculty, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28033 Madrid, Spain)

  • Jesús Huerta de Soto

    (Department of Applied Economics I, History and Economic Institutions and Moral Philosophy, Social and Legal Sciences Faculty, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28033 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The analysis of sustainable economic growth and development often focuses on how to control the market process through coercive state intervention. While state interventionism may play a significant role in countries’ progress, entrepreneurship is the driving force behind sustainable growth and development. Entrepreneurship is the people’s judgment on ideas, plans, and projects, which promises profit in uncertain times. Its effects are the creation and transmission of information and social coordination as a dynamic process of identifying and solving human problems. Sustainable development is the widening range of entrepreneurial alternatives open to people, and sustainable growth is a phase of sustainable development that depends on genuine savings to finance increasingly capital-intensive production structures. The degree to which people are entrepreneurs and the direction genuine savings take depend on institutional arrangements. Some institutions are more conducive to sustainable growth and development than others. After reviewing principles of growth and development sustainability, how coercive state intervention influences economic performance is discussed, proposing novel policy conclusions and research avenues to cultivate entrepreneurship and genuine savings in a post-COVID-19 world.

Suggested Citation

  • Victor I. Espinosa & Miguel A. Alonso Neira & Jesús Huerta de Soto, 2021. "Principles of Sustainable Economic Growth and Development: A Call to Action in a Post-COVID-19 World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13126-:d:688858
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