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False Prophet, or Genuine Savior? Assessing the Effects of Economic Openness on Sustainable Development, 1980–99

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  • de Soysa, Indra
  • Neumayer, Eric

Abstract

While many herald globalization—the increasing interconnectedness of national economies—to be associated with rising standards of living across the globe, others fear its effects on sustainability. Antiglobalization forces and environmentalists view these developments as a threat to the welfare of future generations because of profligate and excessive current consumption. This study is the first to estimate the effects of dependence on trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and an index of economic freedom on the World Bank's measure of sustainability (the genuine savings rate), which measures the rate at which investment in the total stock of manufactured, human, and natural capital exceeds its depreciation. Contrary to pessimists' fears, our indicators of economic openness show positive effects on sustainability, results that are robust to sample size, testing procedure, and several alternative specifications. The results support those who suggest that distorted economies tend to be both inefficient and damaging to future generations. If increasing trade, FDI, and economic freedom are hallmarks of globalization, then worries about its effects on future well-being are misplaced.Equal authorship. We are grateful to Erich Weede, Rick Auty, Simon Dietz, Paul Hensel, Jonathan Moses, Ragnar Torvik, Jostein Vik, Paivi Lujala, two reviewers, and the editor for comments and suggestions. The anonymous reviewers were extraordinarily constructive. Any remaining errors are entirely our fault. The data are available at 〈http://www.svt.ntnu.no/iss/Indra.de.Soysa/default.htm〉.

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  • de Soysa, Indra & Neumayer, Eric, 2005. "False Prophet, or Genuine Savior? Assessing the Effects of Economic Openness on Sustainable Development, 1980–99," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(3), pages 731-772, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:59:y:2005:i:03:p:731-772_05
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    6. Buntaine, Mark T., 2011. "Does the Asian Development Bank Respond to Past Environmental Performance when Allocating Environmentally Risky Financing?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 336-350, March.
    7. Adrian Boos & Karin Holm‐Müller, 2012. "A theoretical overview of the relationship between the resource curse and genuine savings as an indicator for “weak” sustainability," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(3), pages 145-159, August.
    8. Tausch, Arno, 2011. "The ‘four economic freedoms’ and life quality. General tendencies and some hard lessons for EU-27-Europe," MPRA Paper 33225, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Márcia Cristina Silva Paixão & Jorge Madeira Nogueira, 2015. "Foreign direct investment and the environment: the state-of-the art in research," Economía, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (IIES). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales. Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida, Venezuela, vol. 40(39), pages 11-36, January-J.
    10. Ruoff, Gabi, 2008. "Grow rich and clean up later? International assistance and the provision of environmental quality in low- and middle-income countries," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Zurich 2008 37, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    11. Acevedo Rueda, Rafael Alexis & Mora Mora, José U. & Harmath Fernández, Pedro alexander, 2009. "Ahorro y comercio internacional como determinantes de la inversión en Latinoamérica durante el siglo XX [Saving and opennes as determinants of investment in Latin America during the twentieth centu," MPRA Paper 58692, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2010.
    12. Ourvashi Bissoon, 2017. "Is Sub-Saharan Africa on a Genuinely Sustainable Development Path? Evidence Using Panel Data," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 11(4), pages 449-464, November.
    13. Elissaios Papyrakis, 2013. "Environmental Performance in Socially Fragmented Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(1), pages 119-140, May.
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    17. Kirk Hamilton & Esther Naikal, 2014. "Genuine saving as an indicator of sustainability," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 22, pages 336-347, Edward Elgar Publishing.

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