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Viewpoint: Weak versus Strong Sustainability

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Author Info
Robert U. Ayres (INSEAD)
Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh () (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
John M. Gowdy (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

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Abstract

The meaning of sustainability is the subject of intense debate among environmental and resource economists. Perhaps no other issue separates more the traditional economic view of the natural world from the views of most natural scientists. The debate currently focuses on the substitutability between the economy and the environment or between "natural capital" and "manufactured capital"-- a debate captured in terms of "weak" vs. "strong" sustainability. In this paper the various interpretations of these concepts are examined. In addition, the goal of weak sustainability is critically evaluated. Attention is devoted to, among other things, utility and lexicographic preferences, economic valuation, natural science perspectives on sustainability, and the notion of "consilience" as recently suggested by E.O. Wilson.

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Paper provided by Tinbergen Institute in its series Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers with number 98-103/3.

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Date of creation: 28 Sep 1998
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Handle: RePEc:dgr:uvatin:19980103

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Hartwick, John M., 1978. "Investing returns from depleting renewable resource stocks and intergenerational equity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 85-88. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Hartwick, John M, 1977. "Intergenerational Equity and the Investing of Rents from Exhaustible Resources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 972-74, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Hartwick, John M, 1978. "Substitution among Exhaustible Resources and Intergenerational Equity," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(2), pages 347-54, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Cabeza Gutes, Maite, 1996. "The concept of weak sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 147-156, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Bromley, Daniel W., 1998. "Searching for sustainability: The poverty of spontaneous order," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 231-240, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Solow, Robert M, 1986. " On the Intergenerational Allocation of Natural Resources," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 88(1), pages 141-49.
  7. Pearce, David & Hamilton, Kirk & Atkinson, Giles, 1996. "Measuring sustainable development: progress on indicators," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(01), pages 85-101, February. [Downloadable!]
  8. Common, Mick & Perrings, Charles, 1992. "Towards an ecological economics of sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 7-34, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. R. M. Solow, 1973. "Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustable Resources," Working papers 103, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
  10. Alistair Munro, 1997. "Economics and biological evolution," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(4), pages 429-449, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Jeroen van den Bergh & John Gowdy, 2000. "Evolutionary Theories in Environmental and Resource Economics: Approaches and Applications," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(1), pages 37-57, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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