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Bibliography in Sustainable Development

Go to Index page, including Alphabetical Organization and Entire Bibliography File.

Economics

Barker, T. (1993). "Is green growth possible?" New Economy 1(1): 20-25.

Beckerman, W. and J. Pasek (1997). "Plural Values and Environmental Valuation." Environmental Values 6(1): 65-86.

Bhalla, A. S. (1992). Environment, employment, and development. Geneva, International Labour Office.

Bojö, J., K.-G. Mäler, et al. (1990). Environment and development: an economic approach. Dordrecht; Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Brecher, J. and T. Costello (1994). Global village or global pillage: economic reconstruction from the bottom up. Boston, MA, South End Press.

Brown, L. R., C. Flavin, et al. (1991). Saving the planet: how to shape an environmentally sustainable global economy. New York, W.W. Norton.

Burney, J. (2000). "Is Valuing Nature Contributing to Policy Development?" Environmental Values 9(4): 511-520.

Carnoy, M. (1993). The New global economy in the information age: reflections on our changing world. University Park, Pa., Pennsylvania State University Press.

Cobb, J. B. (1992). Sustainability: economics, ecology, and justice. Maryknoll, N.Y, Orbis.

Cole, H. S. D. and University of Sussex. Science Policy Research Unit. (1973). Models of doom; a critique of The limits to growth. New York, Universe Books.

Common, M. S. (1995). Sustainability and policy: limits to economics. New York, Cambridge University Pres.

Common, M. S., R. K. Blamey, et al. (1993). "Sustainability and Environmental Valuation." Environmental Values 2(4): 299-334.

This article is an overview of environmental economics, and particularly discusses the techniques that economists use to value the environment. It discusses willingness to pay and willingness to accept studies, cost benefit analyses, travel cost methods, and contingent valuation studies. Damage avoidance, residual value, and substitute services are also mentioned. The author also discusses the accuracy and appropriateness of pseudo market valuation methods. The major problem with such procedures are that there have been no empirical studies to validate the evaluation methods.

Costanza, R., Ed. (1991). Ecological economics: the science and management of sustainability. New York, Columbia University Press.

Costanza, R. and H. E. Daly (1992). "Natural Capital and Sustainable Development." Conservation Biology 6(1): 37-46.

Costanza, R. and L. Wainger (1991). Ecological economics: the science and management of sustainability. New York, Columbia University Press.

Daly, H. E., J. B. Cobb, et al. (1989). For the common good: redirecting the economy toward community, the environment, and a sustainable future. Boston, Beacon Press.

Daly, H. E. and K. N. Townsend (1993). Valuing the earth: economics, ecology, ethics. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press.

Duchin, F. and G.-M. Lange (1994). The future of the environment: ecological economics and technological change. New York, Oxford University Press.

Friend, A., M. (1992). "Economics, ecology and sustainable development: are they compatible?" Environmental Values 1(2): 1992.

Defining sustainable economic development as assuming that a long term relationship exists between supply and demand of natural resources, that waste is within the assimilating capacity of the biosphere, and that productivity gains are based on decreasing inputs to production and increasing the efficiency of consumption, Friend finds that sustainable economic development is not compatible with neoclassical economics. He critiques this viewpoint with the basic principles of environmental economics. Friend also spends a bit of time noticing that the roots of household economy, political economy and ecology have a common root of oikos, but that ideas used in each of these disciplines merge in the concept of sustainable development. With this analysis he seems to imply that the neoclassical economic perspective has strayed too far from its root meanings, and is far from a useful concept when aiming for sustainable development, and so must be revised. (This article is expressly NOT an article debating whether sustainable development is in fact possible in practice.)

Frumkin, N. (2000). Guide to economic indicators. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe.

Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1971). The entropy law and the economic process. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.

Goodland, R. and H. Daly (1993). "Why northern income growth is not the solution to southern poverty." Ecological Economics general(85-101).

Hawken, P. (1993). The ecology of commerce: a declaration of sustainability. New York, HarperCollins Publishers.

Henderson, H. (1990). "Beyond economics: new indicators for culturally specific, sustainable development." Development 3/4: 60-68.

Henderson, H. (1991). Paradigms in progress: life beyond economics. Indianapolis, IN, USA, Knowledge Systems.

Heuting, R. (1996). "Three persistent myths in the environment debate." Ecological Economics 18: 81-88.

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD): IISDnet: Measurement and Indicators for Sustainable Development. [online]

Jackson, T. and N. Marks (1999). "Consumption, sustainable welfare, and human needs -- with reference to UK expenditure patterns between 1954 and 1994." Ecological Economics 28: 421-41.

Jacobs, M. (1995). "Sustainable Development, Capital Substitution and Economic Humility: A Response to Beckerman." Environmental Values 4(1): 57-68.

This article is a part of an ongoing debate. I will review this piece when I have reviewed the earlier articles.

Lawn, P. A. (2001). Toward sustainable development: an ecological economics approach. Boca Raton, Fla., Lewis Publishers. [online] [online]

MacNeill, J., P. Winsemius, et al. (1991). Beyond interdependence: the meshing of the world's economy and the earth's ecology. New York, Oxford University Press.

McWilliams, D. A. (1994). "Environmental justice and industrial redevelopment: economics and equality in urban revitalization." Ecological Law Quarterly 21(3): 705-783.

Mikesell, R. F. (1995). "The Limits to Growth: A Reappraisal." Resources Policy 21: 127-131.

Mitchell, G., A. May, et al. (1995). "Picabue-- a methodological framework for the development of indicators of sustainable development." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 2(2): 104-123.

Munda, G. (1997). "Environmental Economics, Ecological Economics, and the Concept of Sustainable Development." Environmental Values 6(2): 213-233.

Munda presents introductory article on sustainable development for the non economist that discusses the basic positions of neoclassical and environmental economists, as well as what sustainability is, including the fact that sustainability can not be discussed only from an economic or ecological point of view. Differing ideas of values and sustainability are also discussed.

Neumayer, E. (2003). Weak versus Strong Sustainability: Exploring the Limits of Two Opposing Paradigms. Northampton, MA, Edward Elgar.

This text compares weak and strong sustainability, particularly focusing on an economic point of view, including ways to measure the two kinds of sustainability. Weak sustainability assumes that man made and natural capital are substitutable for each other. The goal of weak sustainability is to keep the total amount of natural and manmade capital intact Advocates of strong sustainability argue that natural and manmade capital are not infinitely substitutable. Consequently, they hold that the stock of natural capital must be held constant and the stock of human capital must separately remain constant. To achieve this goal, renewable natural capital must be increased at the same rate that nonrenewable natural capital is decreased.

O'Neill, J. and C. L. Splash (2000). "Appendix: Policy Research Brief Conceptions of Value in Environmental Decision-Making." Environmental Values 9(4): 521-536.

The author's stated goal is to "examine the limitations of current attempts to capture ethical values within existing economic instruments and consider how these limitations might be overcome." While this is a good overview of the limitations, the article is not long or detailed enough to give a good sense of how these limitations might be overcome.

Standard economic approaches assume several things about the decision making process as it pertains to individuals and their values. First, it is assumed that one's values express one's preferences. Secondly, these preferences are ordered, transitive, reflexive, complete and continuous. Third, the strength of one's preference for small changes in a stock of goods is expressed in their willingness to pay for their satisfaction. Fourth, people have "subjective probabilities about the likelihood of different possible outcomes." Fifth, people always act to obtain the greatest expected satisfaction of preferences. These assumptions are the basis of willing to pay or willing to accept methods of incorporating values into economics as well as hedonic pricing, the travel cost method, and contingent valuation. However, all of these assumptions may be questioned.

Another view of values in economics is that certain things, particularly environmental goods and services cannot be valued economically, for to do so can be taken to be a betrayal of moral commitment to a group such as one's future offspring, or to the environment itself. This perspective is not captured adequately in adjustments to the market listed above.

The authors recognize that environmental decision making is about more than mere economics, but also involves ethical commitments and perceptions of fairness. To address these dimensions of decision-making the authors suggest that processes of decision making must involve a variety of individuals and analytical tools. A few guidelines are suggested, but are not developed.

Parker, K. (1993). "Economics, Sustainable Growth, and Community." Environmental Values 2(3): 233-245.

This article aims to provide a "regulative ideal of sustainable growth which is acceptable at the social level, and which encourages the development of genuine community." After discussing some basic economic principles, including growth and development, Parker investigates John Dewey's writings on the life of individuals. Working from Dewey's idea as the enjoyment of life as the true goal of the economic process, Parker moves to discussing how such a goal could be realized at the social level. He finds diversity of activities, and the sustainability of such activities to be important concepts to reach such a goal. Finally, he examines ethics and ecology as the basis for a conception of what concerns the good of the community.

The most interesting part of this work is the treatment of Dewey, as most of this article is not detailed enough to be very helpful in suggesting ways sustainable growth can be integrated in community life.

Pearce, D. W. (1994). Project and policy appraisal: integrating economics and environment. Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Washington, D.C.: OECD Publications and Information Centre [distributor].

Pearce, D. W., E. Barbier, et al. (1990). Sustainable development: economics and environment in the Third World. Brookfield, VT, Gower Pub. Co.

Pearce, D. W. and J. J. Warford (1993). World without end: economics, environment, and sustainable development. New York, N.Y., Published for the World Bank [by] Oxford University Press.

Perelman, L. J. (1976). The global mind: beyond the limits to growth. New York, Mason/Charter.

Perrings, C. and Beijer Institute. (1995). Biodiversity loss: economic and ecological issues. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pezzey, J. (1992). Sustainable development concepts: an economic analysis. Washington, D.C, World Bank.

Pirages, D. C. (1977). The Sustainable society: implications for limited growth. New York, Praeger.

Rees, W. (1996). "Revisiting carrying capacity: Area-based indicators of sustainability." Population and Environment 17(3): 195-215.

Rees, W. E. (1992). "Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics leaves out." Environment & Urbanization 4(2): 121-130.

Rostow, W. W. (1956). "The takeoff into self-sustained growth." Economic Journal 66(261): 25-48.

Ruttan, V. W., Ed. (1992). Sustainable agriculture and the environment: perspectives on growth and constraints. Boulder, Westview Press.

Schuetz, J. (2000). "Sustainability, Systems and Meaning." Environmental Values 9(3): 373-382.

Steer, A. D., L. H. Summers, et al. (1992). Development and the environment. New York, N.Y., Published for the World Bank [by] Oxford University Press.

Tulchin, J. S. and A. I. Rudman (1991). Economic development and environmental protection in Latin America. Boulder, L. Rienner.

Turner, R. K., D. Pearce, et al. (1993). Environmental economics: an elementary introduction. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.

Waterford, J. J. (1995). "Environment, health, and sustainable development: the role of economic instruments and policies." Bulletin of the World Health Organization 73(3): 387-395.

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