1 / 56

Lecture E Ecological & Environmental Economics

Lecture E Ecological & Environmental Economics. Overview. Terminology Conflicting views of the economy’s relationship to nature No-Limits versus Limits to the economy views Problems with current economic theory & reality Changing signals to the economy and internalization

tilden
Download Presentation

Lecture E Ecological & Environmental Economics

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Lecture EEcological & Environmental Economics

  2. Overview • Terminology • Conflicting views of the economy’s relationship to nature • No-Limits versus Limits to the economy views • Problems with current economic theory & reality • Changing signals to the economy and internalization • Economy behaving like an ecosystem • Alternatives to measuring welfare by GDP • Globalization • Dow Jones Sustainability Index • Summary and Conclusions

  3. Economics Terminology • Economics: the study of the allocation of scarce means among competing ends.(Daly) • Capital: wealth of property that is used or invested to produce more wealth; the money with which an enterprise is started. Set of all physical things capable of satisfying human wants and subject to ownership. Fisher (1906) • natural, human, manmade, critical natural • Wealth: Riches, possession of these. • Riches: a great quantity of money or property or valuable possessions. • Money: portable pieces that can be used as a medium of exchange. Banknotes or coins.

  4. More... • Technology: mechanical arts and applied sciences. • Growth: increasing in size by accretion or assimilation of material. A quantitative increase in physical dimensions or size. • Economic Growth: rising aggregate consumption (C) or output (Q). • Development: bring to a fuller, greater, or better state.

  5. Empty World View – Herman Daly

  6. Full World View

  7. Physical Limits to Economy • Malthus: absolute limits or scarcity • Ricardo: relative limits • Marx: limits due to social and political unrest

  8. Malthus Diagram

  9. Closed Economic System Source: Pezzey

  10. Economy with Environmental Considerations Source: Pezzey

  11. Prevailing Economic System • Private ownership of material resources • Public ownership of “sinks” • Perfect functioning of the market • Infinite subsitutability of resources • Subsidized disposal, energy, water

  12. Mainstream economics FALLACIES • Marie Antoinette Economics let agriculture fall, consume other 97% of GNP • Technological cavalry will save us we can substitute for soil, air, water, forests... • “Not Beating the Wife As Much As Before” false complacency for partial success Source: Davidson, E.A., You can’t eat GNP, Perseus, Cambridge MA 2000.

  13. Main problems with current economic theory Externalities - costs not borne by those who create them Badly defined property rights - environmental goods perceived as commons The environment is not subject of rights - the environment’s interests are not legally represented in the economic system

  14. Externalities • Are equal to expenses on the elimination of a problem. • Distort the economic rationality by influencing decisions on the allocation of means. • Are reflected in the revenues of the whole social or consumer groups (e.g. by making other economic actors pay for the pollution caused by them, some companies are ‘subsidized by those who incur those costs) • May lead to exploitation of some geographical regions by others when regional distribution of labor is taken into account (e.g. migration of polluting industries)

  15. Problems with Current Economic Theory • Assumes market prices reflect consumer willingness to pay. • Assumes that consumers are the best judge of value and that community considerations are irrelevant. • Assumes consumers understand the value of ecological resources provided by many biological resources. Assumes consumer, aided by the market place, knows which species are unnecessary for ecosystem maintenance. • Assessment of economic value ignores many equity and moral considerations. • General failure to recognize that market prices are highly distorted. M.D. Young, Sustainable Investment and Resource Use, Parthenon PublishingGroup, 1992, 24-25.

  16. Socialism collapsed because it did not allow prices to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth. Source: Dahle, 2001.

  17. Worth of Ecosystem • Costanza et al 1997, “The value of the world’s ecosytem goods and services,” Nature, 387:253-260. • Pollination, Raw Materials Production, Water Supply, Waste Recycling & Pollution Control, Recreation & Education, Climate and Atmosphere Regulation, Soil Formation and Erosion Control, Control of Pests & Diseases • Value of services: US$16 to $US54 trillion • World GNP: US$18 trillion • Ecosystem-to-GNP ratio 1.8

  18. Changing the Signals to the Economy • Currently taxes are applied to positive aspects of behavior: wages, productivity, profit • It would be better to tax aspects that are negative: waste, inefficiency, pollution • Possible mechanisms: • Pollution taxes • Tradable pollution permits • Deposit fees • Shifting impacts of production to producers is called “internalization”

  19. Internalization • Benefits of Internalization Processes • Transparency • Across All Sectors • Flexibility • Stimulates Innovation • Polluter Pays • Caveat: must be transnational • Cooperation between sectors • Another example of interconnectedness

  20. Government Use of Internalization Processes Regulations Performance Standards Manufacturer Responsibility Subsidies Permits Taxes : “Tax pollution, not production” -Pollution, excise, severance, tax credits Alternative National Accounting Systems Government as Purchaser and Facilitator (Recycled Content Products/EPA Green Lights

  21. Tax shifts from work & investment to environmental damage

  22. Sustainable Economic System • Understands primary role of natural systems in the economy • Integrates functions of industrial and natural “ecologies” • Accounts for true costs of waste and disposal • Cradle-to-Grave responsibility for products • Penalizes waste, rewards efficiency • Provides for fair, just, meaningful, and fulfilling employment of human resources

  23. Ecological Economics • A new transdisciplinary field addressing the relationship between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense. • Uses the tools of conventional economics and ecology as appropriate. • Need to establish institutions that take the long term view, a la biology. • Economics as an ecological system. R. Costanza, Ed. Ecological Economics, The Science and Management of Sustainability, Columbia University Press, 1991, 3-7.

  24. Relationships of Economic Schools

  25. Some Ecological & Environmental EconomicsTerms • Hicksian Income: income that does not forego future opportunities for others; living off nature’s interest not its capital • Pigou’s Externalities a Pigouvian Tax is on paid by polluters equal to the marginal external cost borne by the pollutees. The polluter is thus informed about the full social costs of his operations and the victims can be fairly reimbursed (1920). • Solow Criterion: Solow stated that substitutability would allow man to get along without natural resources (1974). • The Hartwick-Solow Rule: Manufactured capital can substitute for natural capital

  26. ...income that can be consumed without reducing future consumption possiblities Hicksian Income

  27. Hartwick-Solow Rule Value of savings >= Value of Manufactured Capital Deterioration + Value of natural Capital Depletion/ Degradation The amount a society must save and reinvest to maintain capital intact. The total capital stock (natural plus manufactured must be nondeclining. D. Pearce et al. The Economics of Sustainable Development, Ann. Rev. of Energy Environ. 1994. 19: 457-474.

  28. The Ecological Economists • Kenneth Boulding (1910-1992): The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth (1966) • Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994): The Entropy Law and Economic Progress- the economy is not a reversible mechanical systems but subject to the 2nd Law • Herman Daly: student of N. G-R., steady state economy Gowdy, J. and Sabine O’Hara, Economic Theory for Environmentalists, St LuciePress, 1995, 129-132.

  29. Biological Basis for the Economy • A.J. Lotka: “The Earth Machine” or the “Mill Wheel of Life” • J.A. Hobson : organic test as the test of welfare • N. Georgescu-Roegen: thermodynamic limits, biophysical foundations of the economy • M.K. Hubbert: biophysical constraints to economic growth • H.T. Odum: economy as an ecosystem • G. Hardin: institutional conditions for overexploitation • M. Rothschild: Bionomics - genetic material of the economy is technology

  30. Economy like ecosystem? • Eugene Odum: • young ecosystems: production, growth,quantity • mature ecosystems: protection, stability, quality • Today’s economy is like a young ecosystem • How do we create an economy that is like a mature ecosystem?

  31. The metabolic analogy Metabolism Anabolism Catabolism Degraded matter Degraded energy Useful matter Useful Energy Distribution Economics Anabolism Catabolism Totally degraded matter Totally degraded energy Useful matter Useful Energy Distribution Time

  32. Bionomics • The economy behaves like a biological system • Behavior of biological systems applied toeconomics • Excellent forecasting tool (e.g. AT&T demand for telephone service)

  33. Alternative Measures of Welfare(Examples) • Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) • Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) • Human Development Index (HDI)

  34. Human Development Index • Created by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) • A composite of three indicators • Longevity: life expectancy • Knowledge: literacy, years of schooling • Standard of Living: purchasing power based on GDP/capita

  35. Genuine Progress Indicator • Developed by non-profit: Redefining Progress • Starts with real personal consumption, adjusts for income distribution • Subtracts: • Crime & Divorce • Resource depletion • Environmental Damage • Income Distribution • Pollution • Lifespan of durable goods & public infrastructure • Dependence on foreign assets • Adds: • Value of household work and parenting • Value of volunteer work

  36. INDEX OF SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC WELFARE – U.S., 1990 (Constant billion $ of 1972 Personal income adjusted for income distribution $1,164 +services for household labor +520 +services of consumer durable goods +225 +services of highways and streets +18 +consumption public spending on health/education +45 -consumer spending on durable goods -225 -defensive private spending on health and education -63 -cost of commuting and auto accidents -67 -cost of personal pollution control -5 -cost of air, water, and noise pollution -39 -lost of wetlands and farmland -58 -depletion of natural resources -313 -long term damage from nuclear wastes, ozone depletion, and greenhouse gases -371 +net capital growth +29 +/- net international investment position -34 INDEX OF SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC WELFARE $818

  37. Globalization • The World Trade Organization (WTO) (1995) • Established by final act of Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations in Marrakech in April 1994 • Goal is to remove all obstacles to trade • How a product is made • By whom • What happens when it is made • Result: Countries and regions cannot set standards, express values, or determine what they do or do not support • Outcomes: Child labor, prison labor, forced labor, substandard working conditions and wages, environmental destruction, habitat loss, toxic waste production, synthetic hormones, genetically engineered materials • Membership: 135 countries (but no plebiscite was held!) • Violates Agenda 21 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  38. Case Study: Chiquita Brands International • Chiquita Brands International is a $2 billion company • Main product is bananas from Central America • History of labor abuses, heavy pesticide use (dichloropropane), resulting in birth defects and infertility • European countries biased import policy for bananas to small family farmers using fewer chemicals • U.S. sued and in WTO arbitrated case and won, forcing European countries to eliminate their bias • Other cases: Countries must allow McDonald’s, Blockbuster, Pizza Hut, etc. to operate within their borders

  39. Dow Jones Sustainability Index

  40. Dow Jones Trend

More Related