IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v2y1991i1p89-121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Natural Resource Accounting and Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Common

Abstract

The recent emergence of concern for sustainability, or sustainable development, has lead to a renewed interest in the adequacy of national income accounts for monitoring economic performance. It has been argued that natural resource accounting is needed, and that national income accounting conventions need modifying. The paper reviews this background and argument, and distinguishes several types of natural resource accounting. It is noted that adjustment of measures of national income requires valuation, and that with respect to sustainability objectives market and surrogate market prices are inappropriate. It is argued that the pursuit of sustainability requires modelling rather than historical accounting. Some recent, unofficial, attempts at revising national income data to reflect sustainability concerns are critically reviewed. Finally, data requirements for ecological sustainability are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Common, 1991. "Natural Resource Accounting and Sustainability," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 2(1), pages 89-121, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:2:y:1991:i:1:p:89-121
    DOI: 10.1177/103530469100200107
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/103530469100200107
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/103530469100200107?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William D. Nordhaus & James Tobin, 1973. "Is Growth Obsolete?," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Economic and Social Performance, pages 509-564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Hartwick, John M, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investing of Rents from Exhaustible Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 972-974, December.
    3. Perrings,Charles, 1987. "Economy and Environment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521340816, January.
    4. Partha Dasgupta & Geoffrey Heal, 1974. "The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 3-28.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wills, Ian R., 1992. "Implementing Sustainable Development: Systems and Signalling Problems," Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 60(02), pages 1-7, August.
    2. Serhiy Ostapchuk & Nataliya Tsaruk, 2019. "Accounting for Water, Land and Biological Assets in the Context of Sustainable Development Management: The Choice of a Main Meter," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 2, pages 36-47, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carl Obst & Lars Hein & Bram Edens, 2016. "National Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Assets and Their Services," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(1), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Luke McGrath & Stephen Hynes & John McHale, 2020. "Linking Sustainable Development Assessment in Ireland and the European Union with Economic Theory," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 51(2), pages 327-355.
    3. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2008. "Inconsistency between a criterion and the initial conditions," MPRA Paper 6792, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2008. "Sustainable growth in a resource-based economy: the extraction-saving relationship," MPRA Paper 12350, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bazhanov, Andrei & Belyaev, Alexander, 2009. "Адекватность Закрытой Модели Для Российской Экономики В Задаче Сравнительного Анализа Энергетической Стратегии России [Adequacy of a closed model for Russian economy in the problem of comparative a," MPRA Paper 15109, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Hamilton, Kirk & Ley, Eduardo, 2010. "Measuring National Income and Growth in Resource-Rich, Income-Poor Countries," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 28, pages 1-7, August.
    7. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2007. "The peak of oil extraction and consistency of the government's short- and long-run policies," MPRA Paper 2507, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Seyhan, Demet & Weikard, Hans-Peter & van Ierland, Ekko, 2012. "An economic model of long-term phosphorus extraction and recycling," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 103-108.
    9. Mitra, Tapan, 2002. "Intertemporal Equity and Efficient Allocation of Resources," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 356-376, December.
    10. Cairns, Robert D. & Martinet, Vincent, 2021. "Growth and long-run sustainability," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 381-402, August.
    11. Toman, Michael & Pezzey, John C., 2002. "The Economics of Sustainability: A Review of Journal Articles," RFF Working Paper Series dp-02-03, Resources for the Future.
    12. Rezai, Armon & Stagl, Sigrid, 2016. "Ecological Macreconomics: Introduction and Review," Ecological Economic Papers 9, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    13. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2011. "Investment and current utility change in dynamically inefficient economies," MPRA Paper 35487, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Stern, David I., 1997. "Limits to substitution and irreversibility in production and consumption: A neoclassical interpretation of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 197-215, June.
    15. Schläpfer, F. & Mann, S., 2013. "Eine erweiterte Gesamtrechnung der multifunktionalen Schweizer Landwirtschaft," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 48, March.
    16. van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2010. "Why do many resource-rich countries have negative genuine saving?: Anticipation of better times or rapacious rent seeking," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 28-44, January.
    17. Knapp, Keith C., 2006. "Recursive Sustainability: Intertemporal Efficiency and Equity," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21472, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Alain Ayong Le Kama & Mouez Fodha, 2008. "Optimal nuclear waste burial policy under uncertainty," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne v08092, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    19. Koji Tokimatsu & Louis Dupuy & Nick Hanley, 2019. "Using Genuine Savings for Climate Policy Evaluation with an Integrated Assessment Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(1), pages 281-307, January.
    20. Dietz, Simon & Neumayer, Eric, 2007. "Weak and strong sustainability in the SEEA: Concepts and measurement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 617-626, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:2:y:1991:i:1:p:89-121. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.