The Economics of Sustainable Development

We attempt to sensitize the business practitioner and the public-policy planner, as well as students of business management and the social sciences, to the concept of sustainable development in an easily comprehensible manner. This book analyzes sustainable development from the perspective of economics. Environmental and social challenges are shaping policies and consumer preferences to facilitate sustainable development. This concept has become an integral part of global business strategy. However, these trends are not always backed up by an adequate understanding of the complexities of the concept, and their implications for decision-making. It is important to appreciate the economic logic underlying both the necessity and the difficulty of moving to a world that can be sustained over time. The inter-relationship between the activities of human societies and nature lies at the core of sustainable development. Understanding this inter-relationship goes beyond the domain of conventional economics, into more interfaced terrains of ecological economics and environmental science.

Runa Sarkar is a professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. She has co-edited the India Infrastructure Report (IIR) 2010 on Infrastructure Development in a Low Carbon Economy and IIR 2009 on Land - A Critical Resource for Infrastructure, published by Oxford University Press. She has authored Environment, Business, Institutions, Oxford University Press, 2017, and co-edited Essays on Sustainability and Management: Emerging Perspectives, Springer, 2017.

Anup Sinha is a retired professor of economics from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He was educated at Presidency College and University of Rochester and did his doctoral work at the University of Southern California. He taught at a number of universities in India and abroad. He is a co-author (with Runa Sarkar) of Another Development: Well-Being, Empowerment and Participation in Rural India, Routledge Taylor and Francis 2015. He has co-edited a volume titled Sustainable Development: The Indian Dynamics, Manak Publishers in 2003.