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Generous Sustainability

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  • Gerlagh, Reyer

Abstract

I define “generous sustainability” as a combination of two conditions: neither instantaneous maximin utility nor attainable maximin utility should decrease over time. I provide a formal definition and study applications to a Climate Economy with bounded and with unbounded growth. Generosity is shown to require that GHG emissions are limited to levels that do not cause irreversible system damages if some group of people systematically value these systems.

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  • Gerlagh, Reyer, 2017. "Generous Sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 94-100.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:136:y:2017:i:c:p:94-100
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.02.012
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    Cited by:

    1. Periyasami Anbarasan & Sushil, 2018. "Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainable Enterprise: Evolving a Conceptual Framework, and a Case Study of ITC," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 282-299, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustainability; Sustainable development; Intergenerational distribution; Growth; Climate;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

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