Economic growth, biophysical limits and sustainability in economics textbooks since 1948

A high proportion of North American undergraduates take at least one mainstream principles of economics course; most such courses are shaped by the course textbook. Successive editions of textbooks can be investigated to better understand what their authors thought being conversant in a subject required and what economic views and theories have been disseminated over time. In this chapter, results are presented showing how the principles-level presentation of economic growth and its relationship to sustainability has evolved in mainstream textbooks over the 60-year interval between 1948 and 2008, subdivided into four distinct periods. The main object of analysis is Paul Samuelson’s Economics; relevant changes in the treatment of growth and sustainability between editions are traced. The evolution of these topics in two other mainstream textbooks is also evaluated. This review documents that Samuelson’s first edition gave growth limited, albeit sympathetic, attention. As the succeeding editions rolled out, Samuelson and the other leading textbook authors advocated more emphatically for growth. Drawbacks of growth were sometimes acknowledged in brief passages that nevertheless reassured readers of growth’s viability. The leading textbook authors quickly incorporated a discussion of the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth following its publication in 1972; their treatment was generally dismissive. This analysis further shows that the mainstream economics textbook discussion of biophysical limits has generally failed to improve in sophistication over time or to respond substantively to an accumulating literature questioning the feasibility and desirability of further growth.