Models of Sustainable Development (New Horizons in Environmental Economics)

Models of sustainable development are increasingly used to address large scale environmental problems ensuring that responses to present day needs do not compromise the prospects of future generations.

In this new book a wide range of approaches to modelling sustainable development is examined, including neoclassical, evolutionary, ecological economics and neo-Ricardian models. Recognizing that the application of sustainable development requires the reorientation of economic analysis on several fundamental points, a distinguished group of authors re-examines such key issues as intra- and intergenerational equity, the treatment of the very long-term, the irreversibility of ecological change, fundamental uncertainty and system complexity, and processes of technological change. The achievements and limitations of different models of sustainable development are explored, with particular reference to their value in support of decision-making.

Researchers and graduate students in environmental economics will welcome this volume's rigorous approach to environmental sustainability as well as its consideration of a wide range of different modelling approaches and, in particular, the assumptions which sustain them.

Edited by Sylvie Faucheux, Professor of Economics and Director, C3ED, Université de Versailles–Saint Quentin en Yvelines, France, the late David Pearce, formerly Emeritus Professor of Economics, University College London, UK and the late John Proops, formerly Professor of Ecological Economics, School of Politics, International Relations and the Environment, Keele University, UK