IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/anu/wpieep/0201.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A One-sided Sustainability Test With Multiple Consumption Goods

Author

Listed:
  • John C. V. Pezzey

    (Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University)

Abstract

In an economy with multiple consumption goods (including environmental amenities) that uniquely maximises the present value of utility with constant discounting, constant or falling augmented green net national product, or zero or negative augmented net investment, at any time implies that the economy is unsustainable then. "Augmented" means that time is treated as a productive stock, so augmented net investment includes the value of time. This allows future exogenous technical progress and changes in world prices to be included in a unified accounting framework, along with features such as resource depletion, pollution and foreign investment. The practical and philosophical rationale for testing sustainability in a present-value maximising, and therefore fully prescribed, development path are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • John C. V. Pezzey, 2002. "A One-sided Sustainability Test With Multiple Consumption Goods," Working Papers in Ecological Economics 0201, Australian National University, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Ecological Economics Program.
    • Handle: RePEc:anu:wpieep:0201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://een.anu.edu.au/download_files/eep0201.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen A. Marglin, 1963. "The Social Rate of Discount and The Optimal Rate of Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 77(1), pages 95-111.
    2. Thomas Aronsson & Per-Olav Johansson, 1997. "Welfare Measurement, Sustainability and Green National Accounting," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1240.
    3. Hanley, Nick & Moffatt, Ian & Faichney, Robin & Wilson, Mike, 1999. "Measuring sustainability: A time series of alternative indicators for Scotland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 55-73, January.
    4. Malcolm Pemberton & David Ulph, 2001. "MeasuringIncome and Measuring Sustainability," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(1), pages 25-40, March.
    5. Pezzey, John C.V., 2004. "Exact measures of income in a hyperbolic economy," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 473-484, August.
    6. Kirk Hamilton, 1996. "Pollution And Pollution Abatement In The National Accounts," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 42(1), pages 13-33, March.
    7. Martin L. Weitzman, 1976. "On the Welfare Significance of National Product in a Dynamic Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(1), pages 156-162.
    8. 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.
    9. Vellinga, Nico & Withagen, Cees, 1996. "On the Concept of Green National Income," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 499-514, October.
    10. Asheim, Geir B., 2000. "Green national accounting: why and how?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 25-48, February.
    11. Sefton, J. A. & Weale, M. R., 1996. "The net national product and exhaustible resources: The effects of foreign trade," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 21-47, July.
    12. Asheim, Geir B., 1996. "Capital gains and net national product in open economies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 419-434, March.
    13. Asheim, Geir B. & Weitzman, Martin L., 2001. "Does NNP growth indicate welfare improvement?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 233-239, November.
    14. Karl-Göran Mäler, 1991. "National accounts and environmental resources," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 1(1), pages 1-15, March.
    15. John M. Hartwick, 1997. "Paying down the Environmental Debt," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 73(4), pages 508-515.
    16. 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.
    17. Martin L. Weitzman, 1970. "Aggregation and Disaggregation in the Pure Theory of Capital and Growth: A New Parable," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 292, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    18. Geir B. Asheim, 1997. "Adjusting Green NNP to Measure Sustainability," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 355-370, September.
    19. repec:bla:scandj:v:96:y:1994:i:2:p:257-65 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Vincent, Jeffery & Panayotou, Theodore & Hartwick, John, 1997. "Resource Depletion And Sustainability In Small Open Economies," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294389, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    21. Hartwick, John M., 1990. "Natural resources, national accounting and economic depreciation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 291-304, December.
    22. repec:bla:scandj:v:88:y:1986:i:1:p:141-49 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. repec:bla:scandj:v:100:y:1998:i:2:p:513-27 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Vincent, Jeffrey R. & Panayotou, Theodore & Hartwick, John M., 1997. "Resource Depletion and Sustainability in Small Open Economies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 274-286, July.
    25. Martin L. Weitzman, 1997. "Sustainability and Technical Progress," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(1), pages 1-13, March.
    26. repec:bla:scandj:v:99:y:1997:i:3:p:355-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Hamilton, Kirk, 1994. "Green adjustments to GDP," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 155-168, September.
    28. 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.
    29. Richard Howarth & Richard Norgaard, 1993. "Intergenerational transfers and the social discount rate," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 3(4), pages 337-358, August.
    30. Solow, Robert, 1993. "An almost practical step toward sustainability," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 162-172, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. John C. V. Pezzey, 2002. "One-sided Unsustainability Tests and NNP Measurement with Multiple Consumption Goods," Economics and Environment Network Working Papers 0208, Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network.
    2. John C. V. Pezzey, 2004. "Sustainability Policy and Environmental Policy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 106(2), pages 339-359, June.
    3. Pezzey, J.C.V.John C. V., 2004. "One-sided sustainability tests with amenities, and changes in technology, trade and population," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 613-631, July.
    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. Geir B. Asheim, 2003. "Green national accounting for welfare and sustainability:A Taxonomy Of Assumptions And Results," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 50(2), pages 113-130, May.
    6. Nick Hanley & Louis Dupuy & Eoin McLaughlin, 2015. "Genuine Savings And Sustainability," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 779-806, September.
    7. Asheim, Geir B., 2000. "Green national accounting: why and how?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 25-48, February.
    8. 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.
    9. Geir B. Asheim & Rintaro Yamaguchi, 2023. "Comprehensive National Accounting for Carbon Emissions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10562, CESifo.
    10. John C. V. Pezzey & Nick Hanley & Nick Hanley & Karen Turner & Dugald Tinch, 2003. "Augmented Sustainability Measures for Scotland," Economics and Environment Network Working Papers 0302, Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network.
    11. Lucas Bretschger & Simone Valente, 2011. "International trade and net investment: theory and evidence," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 197-224, June.
    12. Rubio, M. del Mar, 2004. "The capital gains from trade are not enough: evidence from the environmental accounts of Venezuela and Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 1175-1191, November.
    13. 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.
    14. Andrés Gómez-Lobo E., 2001. "Sustainable development and natural resource accounting in a small open economy: a methodological clarification," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 28(2 Year 20), pages 203-216, December.
    15. Pezzey, John C.V., 2001. "Exact Measures of Income in Two Capital-Resource Economies," 2001 Conference (45th), January 23-25, 2001, Adelaide, Australia 125834, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    16. Pezzey, John C.V. & Hanley, Nick & Turner, Karen & Tinch, Dugald, 2006. "Comparing augmented sustainability measures for Scotland: Is there a mismatch?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 60-74, April.
    17. Harris, Michael & Fraser, Iain, 2002. "Natural resource accounting in theory and practice: A critical assessment," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 46(2), pages 1-54.
    18. Pezzey, John C.V., 2004. "Exact measures of income in a hyperbolic economy," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 473-484, August.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:anu:wpieep:0201. 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: Jack Pezzey (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://incres.anu.edu.au/EEP/wp.html .

    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.