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Wealth, Natural Capital, and Sustainable Development: Contrasting Examples from Botswana and Namibia

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  • Glenn-marie Lange

Abstract

Theoretical work has demonstrated that sustainable development requires non-declining per capita wealth, where wealth is defined to include produced, natural, human and social capital. Several studies have attempted to measure total national wealth or changes in wealth, but have been seriously hampered by a lack of data, especially for natural and human capital. To address this problem, the UN and other international statistical agencies developed a standardized framework for environmental accounts, the System of integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA). Using the newly available asset accounts for natural capital, national wealth accounts are constructed and used to assess the contrasting development paths of Botswana and Namibia. Botswana, with an explicit policy of reinvestment of resource rents, has roughly tripled per capita wealth and national income over the past two decades. Namibia, with no explicit policy to use natural capita to build wealth, has seen per capita wealth and income decline. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004

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  • Glenn-marie Lange, 2004. "Wealth, Natural Capital, and Sustainable Development: Contrasting Examples from Botswana and Namibia," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 29(3), pages 257-283, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:29:y:2004:i:3:p:257-283
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-004-4045-z
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    3. HERCIU Mihaela, 2015. "Economic Development As An Interrelation Between Wealth, Competitiveness, And Intellectual Capital - Empirical Evidences," Revista Economica, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 67(6), pages 30-37.
    4. Jorgensen, Ole Hagen, 2013. "Efficiency and equity implications of oil windfalls in Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6597, The World Bank.
    5. Glenn-Marie Lange, 2014. "Environmental accounting," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 21, pages 319-335, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Perrings, Charles, 2014. "Environment and development economics 20 years on," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 333-366, June.
    7. Susan L. Sakmar & Mathis Wackernagel & Alessandro Galli & David Moore, 2011. "Sustainable Development and Environmental Challenges in The MENA Region: Accounting for The Environment In The 21st Century," Working Papers 592, Economic Research Forum, revised 06 Jan 2011.
    8. Kaznacheev, Peter, 2013. "Resource Rents and Economic Growth: Economic and institutional development in countries with a high share of income from the sale of natural resources. Analysis and recommendations based on internatio," EconStor Research Reports 121950, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    9. Papyrakis, Elissaios & Gerlagh, Reyer, 2006. "Resource windfalls, investment, and long-term income," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 117-128, June.

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