The Economics of Sustainable Development

Introductory chapter | Table of Contents

In this interesting, and accessible volume, a distinguished group of social scientists provides an economic perspective on critical issues that characterize the topic of sustainable development. In each case, they give hope that the challenges facing societies can be surmounted and millions can be lifted out of poverty by adopting policies that encourage the investment in human capital, democratic institutions, and improved market performance. Included are

• The Concept of Sustainable Development: An Introduction, by Sisay Asefa.
  The book’s editor provides a broad overview of the concept of sustainable development and discusses the concept of natural capital and its relationship to physical capital, human capital, and gross national product.
• Some Neglected Aspects of Sustainable Development, by Malcolm Gillis.
  Gillis makes the point that, in sensible sustainable development, preservation is valued not for its own sake but for what it can do for the welfare of present and future generations. He also emphasizes the importance of moving quickly toward more effective markets so that real resource scarcities will be reflected in the prices people pay for commodities and services.
• Economic Development, Inequality, and War, by E. Wayne Nafziger and Juha Auvinen.
  Nafziger and Auvinen show how economic decline, income inequality, a weakening state, pervasive rent seeking by ruling elites, an extensive threat to survival income, and competition for control of mineral exports contribute to humanitarian crises.
• Population Growth in World Agriculture: Sources and Constraints, by Vernon W. Ruttan.
  Ruttan examines the sources and constraints of productivity growth in world agriculture and traces the role of agriculture in economic thought beginning at a time when agriculture was viewed as a sector from which resources could be extracted to fund the industrial sector. He concludes that, for most developing countries today, the appropriate agricultural technologies to pursue are based on three elements: 1) land and water development to provide a favorable environment for plant growth, 2) the appropriate use of fertilizers and biological agents to protect plants from insects and pathogens, and 3) the planting of biologically efficient crops suitable to specific environments.
• How the World Survived the Population Bomb: An Economic Perspective, by David Lam.
  Lam surveys key economic indicators related to many of the worst fears about the impact of previously unseen levels of population growth in humankind during the last half of the twentieth century. He finds that, due to technological gains that allow us to feed ourselves and provide necessary resources, we survived the so-called population explosion.
• Property Rights and the Urgent Challenge of Environmental Sustainability, by Daniel W. Bromley.
  The intent of this paper is to connect two “primary contemporary” concerns—property rights and environmental sustainability. Bromley asserts that the main challenge for sustainable development policy is to understand the process whereby information from a community a scientists is viewed as definitive and pertinent to the problem under consideration. Discussions about sustainability, he says, should not be seen as pronouncements about what must be saved for the future. Rather, generally accepted concepts must flow from a continual dialogue—a political process in which society deems what works and is worth saving for the future, what is revered now, and what we hope our descendants will revere in the future.
• Too Poor to Be Stewards? Rural Poverty and Sustainable Natural Resource Management, by Scott M. Swinton.
  Swinton argues that natural resource sustainability in developing countries is not the result of a direct cause-effect relationship, but rather is engendered by a web of causal factors. He reviews the history of the poverty-environment debate, examines three case studies that shed light on key relationships, and proposes policy interventions to promote the sustainability of the natural resources that underpin agricultural productivity.

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