Measuring Sustainable Development: Macroeconomics and the Environment

This path-breaking book focuses on the theory and practice of economic development as viewed from the perspective of sustainability, and the implications of sustainability for development policy. It demonstrates how various indicators can be developed and used to determine whether or not an economy is on a sustainable path of development.

The book is concerned with measuring sustainability in a macroeconomic context so that decision makers are more aware of the real trends in the economy and the way in which their policies may affect these trends. The discussion on such measurement includes: the physical indicators of sustainability, resource and environmental accounting, savings and the empirical measurement of sustainable development, international trade and unsustainable development, ecological indicators, income distribution and social needs, and the assessment of structural adjustment policies and their implications for sustainable development. The authors conclude that the first step towards sustainable development is for a greater awareness of the effects of development on the environment, and the environment on human well-being.

Measuring Sustainable Development will be particularly welcomed by policymakers and practitioners as well as researchers, academics and students of development economics and environmental economics.

Giles Atkinson, Professor of Environmental Policy, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK, Richard Dubourg, Principal Consultant, ENTEC Ltd and Senior Honorary Fellow, CSERGE, University College London and University of East Anglia, UK, Kirk Hamilton, Lead Environmental Economist, Environmental Economics and Policy, The World Bank, Washington DC, US, Mohan Munasinghe, Chairman, Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND), Colombo, and Vice Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Geneva, the late David Pearce, formerly Emeritus Professor of Economics, University College London, UK and Carlos Young, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRAJ), Brazil