IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v160y2019icp264-271.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Degrowth through income and wealth caps?

Author

Listed:
  • Buch-Hansen, Hubert
  • Koch, Max

Abstract

In the degrowth literature, maximum caps on wealth and/or income are frequently mentioned among the policy instruments that could support transitions towards ecologically and socially sustainable societies. Yet an in-depth discussion of concrete policy proposals has yet to be initiated. To facilitate such a discussion, the present paper reviews several proposals for placing caps on wealth and/or income. Some of these proposals consider environmental limits, others focus exclusively on social inequality. The paper moreover raises various critical issues concerning the introduction of maximum caps on wealth and income in a degrowth context, discussing the role of the state, the impact on economic growth and the risk of emigration of high-skilled employees and capital flight. We conclude that while, in an ecologically constrained world, there is an argument for imposing limits on wealth and income above a certain level, it is crucial not to dictate such policies as mere top-down measures but to develop and deliberate them in democratic forums.

Suggested Citation

  • Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Koch, Max, 2019. "Degrowth through income and wealth caps?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 264-271.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:160:y:2019:i:c:p:264-271
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.03.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800918314836
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.03.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Buch-Hansen, Hubert, 2018. "The Prerequisites for a Degrowth Paradigm Shift: Insights from Critical Political Economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 157-163.
    2. Max Koch, 2012. "Capitalism and Climate Change," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-35508-8, September.
    3. Koch, Max & Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Fritz, Martin, 2017. "Shifting Priorities in Degrowth Research: An Argument for the Centrality of Human Needs," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 74-81.
    4. Marcelo Medeiros, 2006. "The Rich and the Poor: The Construction of an Affluence Line from the Poverty Line," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 78(1), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Sayer, Andrew & Wilkinson, Richard, 2015. "Why We Can't Afford the Rich," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9781447320791, Febrero.
    6. Alstadsæter, Annette & Johannesen, Niels & Zucman, Gabriel, 2018. "Who owns the wealth in tax havens? Macro evidence and implications for global inequality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 89-100.
    7. Leonardi, Emanuele, 2019. "Bringing Class Analysis Back in: Assessing the Transformation of the Value-Nature Nexus to Strengthen the Connection Between Degrowth and Environmental Justice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 83-90.
    8. Jan Drewnowski, 1978. "The affluence line," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 263-278, March.
    9. Ian Gough, 2017. "Heat, Greed and Human Need," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16991.
    10. Buch-Hansen, Hubert, 2014. "Capitalist diversity and de-growth trajectories to steady-state economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 167-173.
    11. Tim Jackson, 2009. "Beyond the Growth Economy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 13(4), pages 487-490, August.
    12. Daniel W. O’Neill & Andrew L. Fanning & William F. Lamb & Julia K. Steinberger, 2018. "A good life for all within planetary boundaries," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(2), pages 88-95, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Stratford, Beth, 2020. "The Threat of Rent Extraction in a Resource-constrained Future," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Lainé, Michael, 2023. "How to reconcile actual climate change mitigation with prosperity? A proposal," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    3. Katharina Bohnenberger, 2020. "Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-30, January.
    4. Koch, Max, 2022. "State-civil society relations in Gramsci, Poulantzas and Bourdieu: Strategic implications for the degrowth movement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    5. Katharina Bohnenberger, 2022. "Greening work: labor market policies for the environment," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 347-368, May.
    6. Jana Brandl & Irina Zielinska, 2020. "Reviewing the Smart City Vienna Framework Strategy’s Potential as an Eco-Social Policy in the Context of Quality of Work and Socio-Ecological Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, January.
    7. Michael Lainé, 2023. "How to reconcile actual climate change mitigation with prosperity? A proposal," Post-Print hal-04265121, HAL.
    8. Vogel, Jefim & Guerin, Gauthier & O'Neill, Daniel W. & Steinberger, Julia K., 2024. "Safeguarding livelihoods against reductions in economic output," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    9. Kapeller, Jakob & Leitch, Stuart & Wildauer, Rafael, 2023. "Can a European wealth tax close the green investment gap?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    10. Bohnenberger, Katharina, 2022. "Is it a green or brown job? A Taxonomy of Sustainable Employment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    11. François, Martin & Mertens de Wilmars, Sybille & Maréchal, Kevin, 2023. "Unlocking the potential of income and wealth caps in post-growth transformation: A framework for improving policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    12. Mastini, Riccardo & Kallis, Giorgos & Hickel, Jason, 2021. "A Green New Deal without growth?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    13. Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Nesterova, Iana, 2021. "Towards a science of deep transformations: Initiating a dialogue between degrowth and critical realism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    14. Toni Ruuska & Pasi Heikkurinen & Kristoffer Wilén, 2020. "Domination, Power, Supremacy: Confronting Anthropolitics with Ecological Realism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Nesterova, Iana, 2023. "Less and more: Conceptualising degrowth transformations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    16. Andreas Novy & Nathan Barlow & Julia Fankhauser, 2022. "Transformative Innovation," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2022_01, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Nesterova, Iana, 2021. "Towards a science of deep transformations: Initiating a dialogue between degrowth and critical realism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Martin Fritz & Max Koch, 2019. "Public Support for Sustainable Welfare Compared: Links between Attitudes towards Climate and Welfare Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Tuuli Hirvilammi & Max Koch, 2020. "Sustainable Welfare beyond Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-8, February.
    4. Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Nesterova, Iana, 2023. "Less and more: Conceptualising degrowth transformations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    5. Koch, Max, 2022. "State-civil society relations in Gramsci, Poulantzas and Bourdieu: Strategic implications for the degrowth movement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    6. Buch-Hansen, Hubert, 2018. "The Prerequisites for a Degrowth Paradigm Shift: Insights from Critical Political Economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 157-163.
    7. Røpke, Inge, 2020. "Econ 101—In need of a sustainability transition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Fritz, Martin & Koch, Max, 2014. "Potentials for prosperity without growth: Ecological sustainability, social inclusion and the quality of life in 38 countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 191-199.
    9. Tallgauer, Maximilian & Schank, Christoph, 2024. "Challenging the growth-prosperity Nexus: Redefining undergraduate economics education for the Anthropocene," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    10. Koch, Max & Buch-Hansen, Hubert & Fritz, Martin, 2017. "Shifting Priorities in Degrowth Research: An Argument for the Centrality of Human Needs," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 74-81.
    11. Katharina Bohnenberger, 2020. "Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-30, January.
    12. Marcon, Giulio, 2021. "La ricchezza in Italia Rapporto di ricerca [Wealth in Italy. Research Report]," MPRA Paper 107809, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Ingrid Robeyns & Vincent Buskens & Arnout Rijt & Nina Vergeldt & Tanja Lippe, 2021. "How Rich is Too Rich? Measuring the Riches Line," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 115-143, February.
    14. Aila-Leena Matthies & Ingo Stamm & Tuuli Hirvilammi & Kati Närhi, 2019. "Ecosocial Innovations and Their Capacity to Integrate Ecological, Economic and Social Sustainability Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, April.
    15. Tuuli Hirvilammi, 2020. "The Virtuous Circle of Sustainable Welfare as a Transformative Policy Idea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, January.
    16. Nessa Winston, 2022. "Sustainable community development: Integrating social and environmental sustainability for sustainable housing and communities," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 191-202, February.
    17. Gutberlet, Melissa & Preuss, Lutz & Thorpe, Andrea Stevenson, 2023. "Macro level matters: Advancing circular economy in different business systems within Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    18. Froese, Tobias & Richter, Markus & Hofmann, Florian & Lüdeke-Freund, Florian, 2023. "Degrowth-oriented organisational value creation: A systematic literature review of case studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    19. Corlet Walker, Christine & Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Welfare systems without economic growth: A review of the challenges and next steps for the field," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    20. Pirgmaier, Elke, 2021. "The value of value theory for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).

    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:eee:ecolec:v:160:y:2019:i:c:p:264-271. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    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.