IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v118y2014i2p911-918.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Use of Shadow Prices for Sustainable Well-Being Measurement

Author

Listed:
  • Giuseppe Munda

Abstract

This paper tries to answer the following research question: can multidimensional concepts like well-being or sustainability be measured by using a single metric such as shadow prices? The defence of shadow prices is generally based on the pragmatic argument that different dimensions (economic, social, environmental,…) cannot be aggregated when measured by means of different metrics, thus a common measurement rod has to be found, that is shadow prices have to be used. Here the following conclusions are drawn: (1) The choice of shadow prices is not neutral, in fact implicit assumptions such as that substitutability is always desirable need to be accepted. This means that the use of shadow prices is not consistent with a simple measurement objective but with a precise weltanschauung. (2) Shadow prices are primarily meant to implement efficiency, i.e. prices reflect conditions at the margin, and thus this is their natural objective. In the framework of sustainable well-being measurement, this may give rise to counterintuitive results, such as that the loss of an important well-being component is not perceived since its physical scarcity is compensated by its increase in monetary value. (3) The pragmatic measurement argument is not well grounded, since multidimensional measurement frameworks exist, such as multi-criteria evaluation. Since incommensurability between different metrics does not imply incomparability, there is no obvious reason for not using multidimensional techniques to measure multidimensional concepts. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Giuseppe Munda, 2014. "On the Use of Shadow Prices for Sustainable Well-Being Measurement," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 911-918, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:118:y:2014:i:2:p:911-918
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-013-0446-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11205-013-0446-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-013-0446-0?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alex Michalos, 1997. "Combining Social, Economic And Environmental Indicators To Measure Sustainable Human Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 221-258, January.
    2. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    3. Easterlin, Richard A, 2001. "Income and Happiness: Towards an Unified Theory," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(473), pages 465-484, July.
    4. Jean-Yves Duclos & David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 943-968, October.
    5. Bruno S. Frey, 1986. "Economists Favour the Price System Who Else Does?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 537-563, November.
    6. Giuseppe Munda, 2003. "Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE)," UHE Working papers 2003_04, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Unitat d'Història Econòmica.
    7. Giuseppe Munda, 2005. "“Measuring Sustainability”: A Multi-Criterion Framework," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 117-134, January.
    8. Arrow, Kenneth J. & Dasgupta, Partha & Goulder, Lawrence H. & Mumford, Kevin J. & Oleson, Kirsten, 2012. "Sustainability and the measurement of wealth," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 317-353, June.
    9. Giuseppe Munda, 2012. "Choosing Aggregation Rules for Composite Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 337-354, December.
    10. R. M. Solow, 1974. "Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 29-45.
    11. World Bank, 2011. "The Changing Wealth of Nations : Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2252.
    12. John M. Hartwick, 1978. "Substitution Among Exhaustible Resources and Intergenerational Equity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 45(2), pages 347-354.
    13. Harcourt,G. C., 1972. "Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521096720, September.
    14. JosÉ Figueira & Salvatore Greco & Matthias Ehrogott, 2005. "Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis: State of the Art Surveys," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-0-387-23081-8, December.
    15. Munda, Giuseppe, 2004. "Social multi-criteria evaluation: Methodological foundations and operational consequences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(3), pages 662-677, November.
    16. Robert M. Solow, 1974. "The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 12, pages 257-276, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. John Hartwick, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investment of Rents from Exhaustible Resources in a Two Sector Model," Working Paper 281, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    18. Victor, Peter A., 1991. "Indicators of sustainable development: some lessons from capital theory," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 191-213, December.
    19. repec:bla:scandj:v:88:y:1986:i:1:p:141-49 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Giuseppe Munda, 2012. "Intensity of preference and related uncertainty in non-compensatory aggregation rules," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 73(4), pages 649-669, October.
    21. Giuseppe Munda & Michaela Saisana, 2011. "Methodological Considerations on Regional Sustainability Assessment Based on Multicriteria and Sensitivity Analysis," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 261-276.
    22. 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.
    23. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June.
    24. Jean-Yves Duclos & David Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Spatial Poverty Comparisons in Ghana, Madagascar, and Uganda," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(1), pages 91-113.
    25. repec:bla:kyklos:v:39:y:1986:i:4:p:537-63 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Giuseppe Munda & Michela Nardo, 2009. "Noncompensatory/nonlinear composite indicators for ranking countries: a defensible setting," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(12), pages 1513-1523.
    27. Jean-Yves Duclos & David Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2006. "Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons with Discrete Indicators of Well-being," Cahiers de recherche 0628, CIRPEE.
    28. Dasgupta, Partha, 2001. "Valuing Objects and Evaluating Policies in Imperfect Economies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(471), pages 1-29, May.
    29. L. V. Kantorovich, 1960. "Mathematical Methods of Organizing and Planning Production," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(4), pages 366-422, July.
    30. Alex Michalos, 1980. "Satisfaction and happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 385-422, December.
    31. Pearce, David W. & Atkinson, Giles D., 1993. "Capital theory and the measurement of sustainable development: an indicator of "weak" sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 103-108, October.
    32. Rabinowicz, Wlodek, 2012. "Value Relations Revisited," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 133-164, July.
    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. Fusco, Elisa, 2015. "Enhancing non-compensatory composite indicators: A directional proposal," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(2), pages 620-630.
    2. Patenema Ouedraogo, 2022. "The Impact Of Public Debt On The Sustainability Of The Economy," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 16(1), pages 334-350.
    3. Roman, Philippe & Thiry, Géraldine, 2016. "The inclusive wealth index. A critical appraisal," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 185-192.
    4. Karacharovskiy, Vladimir & Vakulenko, Elena, 2021. "Approaches to measuring the shadow price of individual wage mobility channels," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 61, pages 62-88.

    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. Giuseppe Munda, 2015. "Beyond Gdp: An Overview Of Measurement Issues In Redefining ‘Wealth’," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 403-422, July.
    2. Perrings, Charles, 2014. "Environment and development economics 20 years on," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 333-366, June.
    3. Adrian Boos, 2015. "Genuine Savings as an Indicator for “Weak” Sustainability: Critical Survey and Possible Ways forward in Practical Measuring," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-37, April.
    4. 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.
    5. Nick Hanley & Louis Dupuy & Eoin McLaughlin, 2015. "Genuine Savings And Sustainability," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 779-806, September.
    6. repec:sae:envval:v:6:y:1997:i:2:p:213-233 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, 1999. "Materials, Capital, Direct/Indirect Substitution, and Mass Balance Production Functions," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 75(4), pages 547-561.
    8. 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.
    9. Louis Dupuy & Matthew Agarwala, 2014. "International trade and sustainable development," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 25, pages 399-417, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. McGrath, Luke & Hynes, Stephen & McHale, John, 2019. "Augmenting the World Bank's estimates: Ireland's genuine savings through boom and bust," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    11. 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.
    12. Gowdy, John, 2005. "Toward a new welfare economics for sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 211-222, April.
    13. Eoin McLaughlin & Cristián Ducoing & Les Oxley, 2024. "Tracing Sustainability in the Long Run: Genuine Savings Estimates 1850–2018," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Perspective, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Argentino Pessoa & Mário Rui Silva, 2009. "Environment Based Innovation: Policy Questions," FEP Working Papers 308, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    15. Louis Dupuy, 2012. "International Trade and Sustainability : A survey," Working Papers hal-00701426, HAL.
    16. Louis Dupuy, 2012. "International Trade and Sustainability: A survey," Larefi Working Papers 201201, Larefi, Université Bordeaux 4.
    17. Matthias Blum & Eoin McLaughlin & Nick Hanley, 2019. "Accounting for Sustainable Development over the Long‐Run: Lessons from Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 410-446, November.
    18. Yu, Yun & Lei, Yalin, 2017. "China's provincial exhaustible resources rent and produced capital stock—Based on Hartwick's rule," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 114-121.
    19. Pezzey, John C.V., 2001. "Optimality, Hartwick’s Rule, and Instruments of Sustainability Policy and Environmental Policy," 2001 Conference (45th), January 23-25, 2001, Adelaide, Australia 125833, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    20. Geir B. Asheim & Rintaro Yamaguchi, 2023. "Comprehensive National Accounting for Carbon Emissions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10562, CESifo.

    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:spr:soinre:v:118:y:2014:i:2:p:911-918. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.