IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/endeec/v2y1997i01p19-37_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resource depletion and economic sustainability in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • VINCENT, JEFFREY R.

Abstract

Countries richly endowed with natural resources have, on average, developed less rapidly than countries that are poor in natural resources. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that the level of investment in reproducible capital has been insufficient to offset the depletion of natural capital. The empirical significance of this explanation can be investigated by analysing modified measures of net investment and net domestic product. Estimation of these measures involves calculating the economic depreciation of natural resources, a task that has been problematic in previous studies. Malaysia provides an ideal case for such empirical investigations, as it is one of the world's most resource-rich countries yet also has one of the world's fastest-growing economies, consists of three subnational regions that differ significantly in terms of economic structure, and has sufficient data for estimating conceptually correct measures of natural resource depreciation. Results of the analysis indicate that Malaysia has developed sustainably, despite substantial resource depletion. This is not the case in two of the regions, however, where trends in both net investment and net domestic product indicate that current consumption levels cannot be sustained. Nevertheless, the regional differences in sustainability might be consistent with optimal national use of the rents generated by exploitation of the country's natural resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent, Jeffrey R., 1997. "Resource depletion and economic sustainability in Malaysia," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 19-37, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:2:y:1997:i:01:p:19-37_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1355770X97000107/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. van der Ploeg, Frederick & Poelhekke, Steven, 2010. "The pungent smell of "red herrings": Subsoil assets, rents, volatility and the resource curse," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 44-55, July.
    2. Perrings, Charles, 2014. "Environment and development economics 20 years on," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 333-366, June.
    3. Mai Van Nam & Nguyen Tan Nhan & Bui Van Trinh & Pham Le Thong, 2016. "Forest Management Systems in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam," EEPSEA Research Report rr2016060, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), revised Apr 2016.
    4. Othman, Jamal & Jafari, Yaghoob, 2011. "Accounting for Depletion of Oil and Gas Resources in Malaysia," MPRA Paper 29037, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. M. del Mar Rubio Varas, 2005. "Value and depreciation of mineral resources over the very long run: An empirical contrast of different methods," Economics Working Papers 867, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    6. M. Niaz Asadullah & Jeron Joseph & James Chin, 2023. "The Political Economy of Poverty Reduction in Malaysia," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 23(2), pages 127-151, April.
    7. Ferreira, Susana & Vincent, Jeffrey R, 2005. "Genuine Savings: Leading Indicator of Sustainable Development?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(3), pages 737-754, April.
    8. Billah, Mustain, 2005. "Measuring the Economic Sustainability: A Case of Forest Extraction in Malaysia," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 1-11.
    9. Kumar, Surender, 2008. "Is India on a Sustainable Development Path?," MPRA Paper 10086, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Gren, Ing-Marie & Isacs, Lina, 2009. "Ecosystem services and regional development: An application to Sweden," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2549-2559, August.
    11. A. A. Hezri & Mohd. Nordin Hasan, 2006. "Towards sustainable development? The evolution of environmental policy in Malaysia," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(1), pages 37-50, February.
    12. Pezzey, J.C.V.John C. V., 2004. "One-sided sustainability tests with amenities, and changes in technology, trade and population," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 613-631, July.
    13. Rubio, M. del Mar, 2004. "The capital gains from trade are not enough: evidence from the environmental accounts of Venezuela and Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 1175-1191, November.
    14. Blignaut, J. N. & Hassan, R. M., 2002. "Assessment of the performance and sustainability of mining sub-soil assets for economic development in South Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 89-101, January.
    15. Giles Atkinson & Kirk Hamilton, 2007. "Progress along the path: evolving issues in the measurement of genuine saving," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 37(1), pages 43-61, May.
    16. Robert T. Deacon & Catherine S. Norman, 2006. "Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve Describe How Individual Countries Behave?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 82(2), pages 291-315.
    17. Neumayer, Eric, 2004. "Does the "Resource Curse" hold for Growth in Genuine Income as Well?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1627-1640, October.
    18. Cockburn, John & Henseler, Martin & Maisonnave, Hélène & Tiberti, Luca, 2018. "Vulnerability and policy responses in the face of natural resource discoveries and climate change: introduction," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(5), pages 517-526, October.
    19. Mabugu, Ramos E. & Chitiga, Margaret, 2002. "Accounting For Forest Resources In Zimbabwe," Discussion Papers 18021, University of Pretoria, Center for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa.
    20. Ouoba, Youmanli, 2017. "Economic sustainability of the gold mining industry in Burkina Faso," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 194-203.
    21. Andrés Gómez-Lobo E., 2001. "Sustainable development and natural resource accounting in a small open economy: a methodological clarification," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 28(2 Year 20), pages 203-216, December.
    22. Harris, Michael & Fraser, Iain, 2002. "Natural resource accounting in theory and practice: A critical assessment," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 46(2), pages 1-54.
    23. Youmanli Ouoba, 2023. "Testing the necessary conditions for sustainability in the mining sector in Burkina Faso," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 36(1), pages 1-12, January.
    24. Li, Qian & Stoeckl, Natalie & King, David, 2019. "Using the life-satisfaction approach to quantify the complex inter-related impacts of coal mining on host communities: A case study in Shanxi, China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 305-316.
    25. Ayad, Fayssal, 2023. "Mapping the path forward: A prospective model of natural resource depletion and sustainable development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:2:y:1997:i:01:p:19-37_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ede .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.