IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/sls/repsls/v1y2001kdfqg.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in Canada

In: The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2001: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s

Author

Listed:
  • Kathleen Day

    (Associate Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa)

  • R. Quentin Grafton

    (Director, Institute of the Environment and Associate Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa)

Abstract

In this chapter, Kathleen Day and R. Quentin Grafton explore the relationship between the economy and the environment. One approach sees economic growth leading to environmental degradation by imposing stresses on limited natural resources and ecosystems and by increasing emissions of pollutants. A second perspective argues the opposite relationship holds. Economic growth, once a certain level is achieved, leads to a cleaner environment as the higher income shifts societal preferences toward a better quality of the environment and at the same time provides the resources to produce such an environment. In addition, it is argued that economic growth is increasingly service-based, decoupling pollution from economic activity. The authors examine the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation in Canada. The implication of their findings is that economic growth by no means resolves environmental problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathleen Day & R. Quentin Grafton, 2001. "Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in Canada," The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress, in: Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director & France St-Hilaire, Vice-President , Research & Keith Banting, Di (ed.), The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2001: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s, volume 1, Centre for the Study of Living Standards;The Institutute for Research on Public Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:repsls:v:1:y:2001:kdfqg
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/repsp/1/14-day.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anand, Sudhir & Kanbur, S. M. R., 1993. "Inequality and development A critique," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 19-43, June.
    2. Kathleen Day & R. Quentin Grafton, 2001. "Economic Growth and the Environment: A Canadian Perspective," Working Papers 0101E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    3. Andrew Sharpe, 1999. "A Survey of Indicators of Economic and Social Well-being," CSLS Research Reports 99wb, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    4. Eric Neumayer, 2013. "Weak versus Strong Sustainability," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14993.
    5. P Ekins, 1997. "The Kuznets Curve for the Environment and Economic Growth: Examining the Evidence," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 29(5), pages 805-830, May.
    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. R. Quentin Grafton & Stephen Knowles, 2002. "Social Capital and National Environmental Performance: A Cross-sectional Analysis," Economics and Environment Network Working Papers 0206, Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network.

    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. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan & Yeh, Fang-Yu, 2006. "Total-factor water efficiency of regions in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 217-230, December.
    2. Mazzanti, Massimiliano & Montini, Anna & Zoboli, Roberto, 2006. "Municipal Waste Production, Economic Drivers, and 'New' Waste Policies: EKC Evidence from Italian Regional and Provincial Panel Data," Climate Change Modelling and Policy Working Papers 12053, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    3. Bourguignon, Francois, 2005. "The Effect of Economic Growth on Social Structures," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 27, pages 1701-1747, Elsevier.
    4. Rothman, Dale S., 1998. "Environmental Kuznets curves--real progress or passing the buck?: A case for consumption-based approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 177-194, May.
    5. Weidner, Helmut, 2005. "Global equity versus public interest? The case of climate change policy in Germany," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Civil Society and Transnational Networks SP IV 2005-102, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    6. Andreoni, James & Levinson, Arik, 2001. "The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 269-286, May.
    7. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2017. "Trade and Environmental Quality in African Countries: Do Institutions Matter?," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(1), pages 155-172, January.
    8. Werner Hediger, 2013. "From Multifunctionality and Sustainability of Agriculture to the Social Responsibility of the Agri-food System," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 6(1), pages 59-80.
    9. Samargandi, Nahla, 2017. "Sector value addition, technology and CO2 emissions in Saudi Arabia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 868-877.
    10. Benjamin Leard, 2011. "Joan Martinez-Alier and Ingo Ropke (eds.): Recent developments in ecological economics (2 vols.)," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 161-178, July.
    11. Eric Neumayer, 2004. "Arab‐related Bilateral and Multilateral Sources of Development Finance: Issues, Trends, and the Way Forward," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 281-300, February.
    12. Toru Iwami, 2001. ""The "Advantage of Latecomer"in Abating Air-Pollution: The East Asian Experience" Revised in February 2004," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-133, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    13. Ngo Long & Vincent Martinet, 2018. "Combining rights and welfarism: a new approach to intertemporal evaluation of social alternatives," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 50(1), pages 35-64, January.
    14. Lindokuhle Talent Zungu & Lorraine Greyling & Nkanyiso Mbatha, 2022. "Nonlinear Dynamics of the Development-Inequality Nexus in Emerging Countries: The Case of a Prudential Policy Regime," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    15. Alpaslan Kelleci & Oğuz Yıldız, 2021. "A Guiding Framework for Levels of Sustainability in Marketing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    16. Saha, Anjan K. & Mishra, Vinod, 2020. "Genetic distance, economic growth and top income shares: Evidence from OECD countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 37-47.
    17. Baumgärtner, Stefan & Quaas, Martin F., 2009. "Ecological-economic viability as a criterion of strong sustainability under uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2008-2020, May.
    18. Roca, Jordi & Serrano, Monica, 2007. "Income growth and atmospheric pollution in Spain: An input-output approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 230-242, June.
    19. Pezzey, John C.V. & Burke, Paul J., 2014. "Towards a more inclusive and precautionary indicator of global sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 141-154.
    20. Datu Buyung Agusdinata & Rimjhim Aggarwal & Xiaosu Ding, 2021. "Economic growth, inequality, and environment nexus: using data mining techniques to unravel archetypes of development trajectories," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 6234-6258, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Growth; Environment; Emissions; Emission; Pollution; Pollutants; Pollutant; Natural Resources; Natural Resource; Non-renewable; Nonrenewable; Renewable;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • Q32 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    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:sls:repsls:v:1:y:2001:kdfqg. 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: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.html .

    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.