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Socially Embedded Preferences, Environmental Externalities, and Reproductive Rights

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  • Dasgupta, A.
  • Dasgupta, P.

Abstract

We review a class of adverse environmental externalities that accompany consumption and procreation. We also identify externalities that are traceable to socially embedded preferences for family size. Those preference structures can give rise to a heightened demand for children, exacerbating the environmental externalities households impose on future generations. Our analysis exposes weaknesses in basing family planning programmes entirely on individuals' reproductive rights. We use ecological data to obtain a feel for the size of global environmental externalities. We estimate the size of world population the biosphere can support at the standard of living enjoyed in the World Bank's list of high middle-income countries. Today's global population and future population projections far exceed our estimate, implying that the UN's Sustainable Development Goals are in all likelihood unsustainable. We conclude that family planning has been undervalued greatly by national governments and international agencies. Our purpose is to pose questions that continue to be neglected in the development literature. We do not offer forecasts nor make policy recommendations.

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  • Dasgupta, A. & Dasgupta, P., 2017. "Socially Embedded Preferences, Environmental Externalities, and Reproductive Rights," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1724, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:1724
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    Cited by:

    1. Partha Dasgupta, 2022. "The Economics of Biodiversity: Afterword," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(4), pages 1017-1039, December.
    2. Haydn Washington & Helen Kopnina, 2022. "Discussing the Silence and Denial around Population Growth and Its Environmental Impact. How Do We Find Ways Forward?," World, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Catriona Towriss & Ian Timæus, 2018. "Contraceptive use and lengthening birth intervals in rural and urban Eastern Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(64), pages 2027-2052.
    4. Zainab Iftikhar, 2018. "The effect of norms on fertility and its implications for the quantity-quality trade-off in Pakistan," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2018014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    5. Partha Dasgupta & Aisha Dasgupta & Scott Barrett, 2023. "Population, Ecological Footprint and the Sustainable Development Goals," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(3), pages 659-675, March.
    6. Reyer Gerlagh & Veronica Lupi & Marzio Galeotti, 2023. "Fertility and climate change," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 208-252, January.
    7. Ronald R. Kumar & Peter J. Stauvermann, 2019. "The Effects of a Revenue-Neutral Child Subsidy Tax Mechanism on Growth and GHG Emissions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-23, May.
    8. Jin Hu & Peter Josef Stauvermann & Juncheng Sun, 2022. "The Impact of the Two-Child Policy on the Pension Shortfall in China: A Case Study of Anhui Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-21, July.
    9. Daria S. Benz, 2019. "Modelling of environmental and economic efficiency: A case of the Ural region," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 20(4), pages 70-87, September.

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