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Is Economic Growth Sustainable? : Conflicting Signals from International Organisations

McLaughin, Eoin ; Ducoing, Cristian LU and Hanley, Nick (2023) In Environmental and One Health Economics Working Papers
Abstract
There has been widespread debate about whether the way in which we measure economic activity is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. One aspect to this debate is to move away from measuring a nation’s income (GDP), towards monitoring a nation's assets (their inclusive wealth), as a better indicator of sustainable economic development. We provide the first critical comparison of the approaches of leading international organisations – the World Bank and United Nations Environment Programme- to estimating changes in wealth. Our paper reveals important inconsistencies in how these organisations measure sustainability, and the conflicting messages that policy makers receive, despite a common underlying conceptual framework linking... (More)
There has been widespread debate about whether the way in which we measure economic activity is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. One aspect to this debate is to move away from measuring a nation’s income (GDP), towards monitoring a nation's assets (their inclusive wealth), as a better indicator of sustainable economic development. We provide the first critical comparison of the approaches of leading international organisations – the World Bank and United Nations Environment Programme- to estimating changes in wealth. Our paper reveals important inconsistencies in how these organisations measure sustainability, and the conflicting messages that policy makers receive, despite a common underlying conceptual framework linking changes in a nation’s wealth to future well-being. At the most extreme, countries that perform the worst according to the UN are shown to perform well according to the World Bank. This confusion in signals makes better policy making more difficult. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Wealth, Sustainability, Natural capital, sustainabie development, Q01, Q32, Q56, N50, N10, O13, O44
in
Environmental and One Health Economics Working Papers
pages
31 pages
project
Genuine Savings as a measure of sustainable development. Towards a GDP replacement.
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3046fe42-e7f2-4e73-9b92-e5e7338d9f9a
alternative location
https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_969011_smxx.pdf
date added to LUP
2023-06-15 09:53:14
date last changed
2023-06-16 08:59:32
@misc{3046fe42-e7f2-4e73-9b92-e5e7338d9f9a,
  abstract     = {{There has been widespread debate about whether the way in which we measure economic activity is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. One aspect to this debate is to move away from measuring a nation’s income (GDP), towards monitoring a nation's assets (their inclusive wealth), as a better indicator of sustainable economic development. We provide the first critical comparison of the approaches of leading international organisations – the World Bank and United Nations Environment Programme- to estimating changes in wealth.  Our paper reveals important inconsistencies in how these organisations measure sustainability, and the conflicting messages that policy makers receive, despite a common underlying conceptual framework linking changes in a nation’s wealth to future well-being. At the most extreme, countries that perform the worst according to the UN are shown to perform well according to the World Bank. This confusion in signals makes better policy making more difficult.}},
  author       = {{McLaughin, Eoin and Ducoing, Cristian and Hanley, Nick}},
  keywords     = {{Wealth; Sustainability; Natural capital; sustainabie development; Q01; Q32; Q56; N50; N10; O13; O44}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  series       = {{Environmental and One Health Economics Working Papers}},
  title        = {{Is Economic Growth Sustainable? : Conflicting Signals from International Organisations}},
  url          = {{https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_969011_smxx.pdf}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}