Uneconomic growth, in welfare economics, human development theory and some forms of ecological economics, is economic growth which reflects or creates a decline in human well-being. The concept is variously attributed to Herman Daly (formerly the senior economist in the environmental department of the World Bank) and Marilyn Waring, though other theorists are also often credited. Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine the allocational efficiency of a macroeconomy and the income distribution associated with it. ... Human development theory is an economic theory that merges older ideas from ecological economics, sustainable development, welfare economics, and feminist economics. ... Ecological economics is an approach to rather than a branch of economics that addresses the interdependence and co-evolution between human economies and natural ecosystems. ... World GDP/capita changed very little for most of human history before the industrial revolution. ... The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. ... Herman Daly is an ecological economist and professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland, College Park in the United States. ... Logo of the World Bank The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, in Romance languages: BIRD), better known as the World Bank, is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by WWII. Now, its mission has expanded to fight poverty by means... Marilyn Waring (born 1952) is a renowned New Zealand feminist, an activist for female human rights, an author and an academic. ...

For instance, in Daly's 1999 Feasta Lecture, "Uneconomic Growth in Theory and in Fact", he cites John Ruskin, then William Nordhaus and James Tobin as having identified the issue. His own colleagues John Cobb and Clifford Cobb developed, with Daly, a formal analysis that emphasized "the cost of GNP growth - in other words, the social and environmental sacrifices made necessary by that growing encroachment on the eco-system." Upper: Steel-plate engraving of Ruskin as a young man, made circa 1845, scanned from print made circa 1895. ... William D. Nordhaus (born May 31, 1941 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. ... For the convicted Republican political operative, see James Tobin (political operative). ... John B. Cobb, Jr. ... Measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate the value of goods and services produced in an economy. ...

Scientific American uses the definition "Uneconomic growth occurs when increases in production come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the items made",^[1] which comes from Daly. Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly) since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ...

Good vs. bad growth

Uneconomic growth often reflects poorly-developed or poorly-planned growth, rather than growth that is bad in and of itself. For example, if one assumes that Atlantic hurricanes and Pacific typhoons have intensified in recent years due to human-caused global warming, then a rapid surge in automobile ownership in China, Brazil, and India could be seen as uneconomic growth. This is based on the assumption that significantly increasing the number of internal combustion engines worldwide would increase global warming, and that the economic damage from global warming would more than offset any economic growth brought about from the increase in automobiles; however, if the new automobiles were ethanol fuelled or hydrogen-fueled from non greenhouse gas producing energy sources such as solar or wind, instead of petroleum-fueled, the effect on global warming might be very minor and not uneconomic at all. Note that the hypothetical surge in automobiles might be 'uneconomic growth' from a global perspective, but 'good economic growth' from those countries' perspective (an example of an externality). This article is about weather phenomena. ... Cyclone Catarina, a rare South Atlantic tropical cyclone viewed from the International Space Station on March 26, 2004. ... Global mean surface temperatures 1850 to 2006 Mean surface temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans in recent decades and the projected... Karl Benzs Velo (vélo means bicycle in French) model (1894) - entered into the first automobile race 2005 MINI Cooper S. An automobile (also motor car or simply car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. ... The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion, or rapid oxidation, of gas and air occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. ... Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, drinking alcohol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, colorless, slightly toxic chemical compound with a distinctive perfume-like odor, and is the alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. ... Hydrogen fuel is potentially an alternative to gasoline, creating a hydrogen economy. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... Karl Benzs Velo (vélo means bicycle in French) model (1894) - entered into the first automobile race 2005 MINI Cooper S. An automobile (also motor car or simply car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. ... In economics, an externality is a cost or benefit from an economic transaction that parties external to the transaction bear. ...

Difficult to detect

However, this demonstrates two central problems with theories of uneconomic growth. First, they are necessarily global in scope while nations are not, and second, typically they rely on long-term longitudinal studies that can be performed only looking backwards across relatively long spans of time, while many political decisions must be made quickly with limited data. A longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves observations of the same items over long periods of time, often many decades. ...

The limits to growth

The "limits to growth" debate is essentially a form of 18th-century Malthusianism. Much of the debate in recent times was prompted by the 1972 Club of Rome study Limits to Growth, which considers the ecological impact of growth and wealth creation. Many of the activities required for economic growth use non-renewable resources. Many researchers feel these sustained environmental effects can have an effect on the whole ecosystem. They argue that the accumulated effects on the ecosystem put a theoretical limit on growth. Some draw on archaeology to cite examples of cultures they say have disappeared because they grew beyond the ability of their ecosystems to support them.^[2] The argument is that the limits to growth will eventually make growth in resource consumption impossible. Malthusianism is a brand of the Manchester School capitalist-type political/economic thought developed during the industrial revolution on the basis of the writings of Thomas Malthus. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Limits to Growth was a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome. ... Ernst Haeckel coined the term oekologie in 1866. ... An ecosystem, a contraction of ecological and system, refers to the collection of biotic and abiotic components and processes that comprise and govern the behavior of some defined subset of the biosphere. ... Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ...

Others are more optimistic and believe that, although localized environmental effects may occur, large-scale ecological effects are minor. The optimists suggest that if these global-scale ecological effects exist, human ingenuity will find ways of adapting to them.

The rate or type of economic growth may have important consequences for the environment (the climate and natural capital of ecologies). Concerns about possible negative effects of growth on the environment and society led some to advocate lower levels of growth, from which comes the idea of uneconomic growth, and Green parties which argue that economies are part of a global society and a global ecology and cannot outstrip their natural growth without damaging them. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the green parties around the world. ...

Canadian scientist David Suzuki argued in the 1990s that ecologies can only sustain typically about 1.5–3% new growth per year, and thus any requirement for greater returns from agriculture or forestry will necessarily cannibalize the natural capital of soil or forest. Some think this argument can be applied even to more developed economies. Mainstream economists would argue that economies are driven by new technology—for instance, we have faster computers today than a year ago, but not necessarily physically more computers. We may have been able to break free from physical limitations by relying on more knowledge rather than more physical production. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Dr. David Suzuki David Takayoshi Suzuki, CC, OBC, BA, Ph. ... This article is very long Some browsers may have difficulty rendering this article. ... A decidous beech forest in Slovenia. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For the American hard rock band, see Soil (band). ... Temperate rainforest on Northern Slopes of the Alborz mountain ranges, Iran A dense growth of softwoods (a conifer forest) in the Sierra Nevada Range of Northern California A decidous broadleaf (Beech) forest in Slovenia. ...

See also

• economic growth
• political economy
• measuring well-being
• moral purchasing
• money supply
• welfare economics
• human development theory
• ecological economics

World GDP/capita changed very little for most of human history before the industrial revolution. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. ... Ethical consumerism is the practice of boycotting products which a consumer believes to be associated with unnecessary exploitation or other unethical behaviour. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine the allocational efficiency of a macroeconomy and the income distribution associated with it. ... Human development theory is an economic theory that merges older ideas from ecological economics, sustainable development, welfare economics, and feminist economics. ... Ecological economics is an approach to rather than a branch of economics that addresses the interdependence and co-evolution between human economies and natural ecosystems. ...

References

1. ^ (September 2005) "Economics in a Full World". Scientific American. 
2. ^ Brander, James A.; Taylor, M. Scott (March 1998). "The Simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model for Renewable Resource Use". The American Economic Review 88 (1). Retrieved on 2006-03-12. 

James A. Brander, professor of Asia-Pacific International Trade, University of British Columbia is co-author of a seminal 1986 article in The American Economic Review, with Tracy R. Lewis, on “Oligopoly and Financial Structure: The Limited Liability Effect. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (72nd in leap years). ...

Further reading

• Baker, Linda (May–June 1999). "Real Wealth: The Genuine Progress Indicator Could Provide an Environmental Measure of the Planet's Health". E Magazine: 37–41. 
• Cobb, Clifford; Ted Halstead, Jonathan Rowe (October 1995). "If the GDP Is Up, Why Is America Down?". Atlantic Monthly: 59–78. 
• Daly, Herman (1999). "uneconomic growth in theory and fact". URL accessed on 2 January 2005.
• Takis Fotopoulos: "The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy", Athens 2005. English online version:[1]
• Rowe, Jonathan; Judith Silverstein (March 1999). "The GDP Myth: Why 'Growth' Isn't Always a Good Thing". Washington Monthly: 17–21. 
• Rowe, Jonathan (July–August 1999). "The Growth Consensus Unravels". Dollars and Sense: 15–18, 33. 

Ted Halstead is the founder and president of the New America Foundation and the co-author, with Michael Lind, of The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics. ... January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Takis Fotopoulos (born October 14, 1940) is a Greek political writer and former academic. ... The theoretical project of Inclusive Democracy (ID; as distinguished from the political project which is part of the democratic and autonomy traditions) emerged from the work of political philosopher, former academic and activist Takis Fotopoulos in Towards An Inclusive Democracy, Cassell/Continuum, London/New York, 1997, 401 pp. ...

External links

• Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
• Capitalism Magazine: Environment, Climate and Ecology