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A Critique of the Environmental Sustainability Index

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  • Raghbendra Jha
  • K.V. Bhanu Murthy

Abstract

The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) has been proposed by collaboration of the World Economic Forum, Geneva, Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University, and Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, New Haven as a measure of the overall state of the environment. This paper argues that the basic design of the ESI leaves much to be desired. It has conceptual problems in its visualization of environmental degradation and sustainability. The choice of variables as well as the statistical methodology of compiling the index is also found to be wanting. The paper then proposes an alternative methodology using Principal Components Analysis and argues that this is an improvement upon the ESI methodology. Given the likely use of aggregate environmental indexes in future environmental management, the critique advanced in this paper is of considerable significance.

Suggested Citation

  • Raghbendra Jha & K.V. Bhanu Murthy, 2003. "A Critique of the Environmental Sustainability Index," Departmental Working Papers 2003-08, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pas:papers:2003-08
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    File URL: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/acde/publications/publish/papers/wp2003/wp-econ-2003-08.pdf
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    1. Jha, Raghbendra & Murthy, K. V. Bhanu, 2003. "An inverse global environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 352-368, June.
    2. William T. Harbaugh & Arik Levinson & David Molloy Wilson, 2002. "Reexamining The Empirical Evidence For An Environmental Kuznets Curve," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 541-551, August.
    3. Jeffrey A. Frankel & Andrew K. Rose, 2005. "Is Trade Good or Bad for the Environment? Sorting Out the Causality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 85-91, February.
    4. Wolfgang Keller & Arik Levinson, 2000. "Environmental Regulations and FDI Inflows to U.S. States," Working Papers gueconwpa~00-00-06, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    5. Heidi Gjertsen & HChristopher B. Barrett, 2004. "Context-Dependent Biodiversity Conservation Management Regimes: Theory and Simulation," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 80(3), pages 321-339.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mihaela Onofrei & Anca-Florentina Gavriluţă (Vatamanu) & Ionel Bostan & Bogdan Florin Filip & Claudia Laurența Popescu & Gabriela Jitaru, 2020. "Impacts of the Allocation of Governmental Resources for Improving the Environment. An Empirical Analysis on Developing European Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Philipp Babcicky, 2013. "Rethinking the Foundations of Sustainability Measurement: The Limitations of the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 133-157, August.
    3. A. Bühn & M.R. Farzanega, 2011. "Hold Your Breath: A New Index of Air Quality," Working Papers 11-24, Utrecht School of Economics.
    4. Suresh Chand Aggarwal, 2021. "Inclusiveness and the Progress of Indian States: Evidence from Inclusive Development Index Between 2011 and 2018," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 200-228, August.
    5. Simpson, Gareth & Jewitt, Graham & Becker, William & Badenhorst, Jessica & Neves, Ana & Rovira, Pere & Pascual, Victor, 2020. "The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Index: A Tool for Integrated Resource Management and Sustainable Development," OSF Preprints tdhw5, Center for Open Science.
    6. Suhejla Hoti & Michael McAleer & Laurent L. Pauwels, 2004. "Modelling Environmental Risk," IHEID Working Papers 08-2004, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    7. Buehn, Andreas & Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza, 2013. "Hold your breath: A new index of air pollution," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 104-113.
    8. Barut, Abdulkadir & Kaya, Emine & Bekun, Festus Victor & Cengiz, Sevgi, 2023. "Environmental sustainability amidst financial inclusion in five fragile economies: Evidence from lens of environmental Kuznets curve," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    9. J. Andres Dominguez & Teresa Noronha Vaz, 2011. "Contrasts in the governance structures in the transborder regions Andaluzia -Algarve," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1121, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Sepehr Hendiani & Morteza Bagherpour, 2020. "Development of sustainability index using Z-numbers: a new possibilistic hierarchical model in the context of Z-information," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 6077-6109, October.
    11. Bhanu Murthy, K.V., 2007. "Social responsibility standards and global environmental accountability : a developing country perspective," MPRA Paper 2636, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Michael C. Nwogugu, 2020. "Decision-Making, Sub-Additive Recursive "Matching" Noise And Biases In Risk-Weighted Stock/Bond Index Calculation Methods In Incomplete Markets With Partially Observable Multi-Attribute Pref," Papers 2005.01708, arXiv.org.
    13. Siche, J.R. & Agostinho, F. & Ortega, E. & Romeiro, A., 2008. "Sustainability of nations by indices: Comparative study between environmental sustainability index, ecological footprint and the emergy performance indices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 628-637, July.
    14. Suhejla Hoti & Michael McAleer & Laurent L. Pauwels, 2007. "Measuring Risk In Environmental Finance," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 970-998, December.
    15. Suresh Chand Aggarwal, 2023. "How Inclusive Are Indian States: Evidence from Inclusive Development Index," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 22(2), pages 151-180, December.

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    Keywords

    Environmental sustainability; Principal Components Analysis;

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