Green Accounting Bibliography
This bibliography contains articles, papers, and books on the topic of green or environmental accounting. Entries are in reverse chronological order. The bibliography is organized in form of a blog to invite comments on particular items and enable easy editing.
The archive pages accessible through the menu on the left include all items published that month. January archives also include entries for the entire year when the exact month of publication is unknown. The page for January 1990 includes everything published prior to that year.
Citations
"Grossly distorted picture." The Economist, February 9, 2006. [full text]
"It's high time that economists looked at more than just GDP."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 2/09/2006. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"The greening of China." The Economist, October 20, 2005. [full text]
"China is investigating whether its rigid system for assessing the performance of party leaders and civil servants can be used to tackle pollution."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 10/20/2005. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Daly, Herman E. "Economics in a Full World." Scientific American, September 2005. [article]
Brief excerpt: "This article by Partha Dasgupta from Scientific American argues that GDP per capita should be disposed of altogether in favor of wealth per capita as a starting point for assessing well-being, with wealth defined very broadly to include physical, human, and natural capital so as to capture factors such as the depletion of natural resources over time. This is part of a larger article called "Economics in a Full World" by Herman E. Daly." From Economist's View.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 8/19/2005. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Buckwell, Allan. "Green Accounting for Agriculture." Journal of Agricultural Economics, Presidential Address, July 2005, 56(2), p. 187. [article]
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 7/01/2005. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"Rescuing environmentalism" and "Are you being served?," The Economist, 21 April 2005. [leader and article]
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 4/21/2005. 1 comments. Permanent link.
Wagner, Gernot. "Fixing GDP: Green Accounting in the United States," Living on Earth, 9 April 2004, National Public Radio's Environmental News Show. [sound file and transcript]
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 4/09/2005. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Banzhaf, H. Spencer. "Green price indices." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 49(2), March 2005. [journal]
Abstract: This paper suggests two theoretically consistent and empirically tractable ways that a cost-ofliving index can be expanded to include the environment and other public goods. In addition, it presents an empirical illustration of such an index for Los Angeles, California, incorporating air quality and other spatially varying public goods using a hedonic model. The results indicate that the required information can be recovered and that including public goods can make a noticeable difference in the index.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/01/2005. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Gundimeda, Haripriya; Sanyal, Sanjeev; Sinha, Rajiv; and Sukhdev, Pavan. 2005. "The Value of Timber, Carbon, Fuelwood, and Non-Timber Forest Products in India's Forests". TERI Press. [full text]
Monograph 1 of 8 of the Green Accounting for Indian States Project (GAISP).
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2005. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Hecht, Joy E. National Environmental Accounting: Bridging the Gap between Ecology and Economy. RFF Press, 2005. [publisher's site; order book]
From the publisher: This book presents national environmental, or "green" accounting as it has developed in Europe and other parts of the world. It introduces the most recent methods developed through the United Nations Statistical Department and other international organizations, but bridges the gap between the superficial treatment of environmental accounting in economics textbooks and environmental literature, on the one hand, and the highly technical manuals of international organizations, on the other.
Joy Hecht begins with a history and introduction to national income accounting. The first part of her book explains how the environmental accounts build on the structure of the 1993 System of National Accounts. She then shows the UN approach to accounting applied to pollution, recycling, and the management of natural resources such as forests, minerals, and fisheries. The third section discusses how the accounts approach green GDP and other macroeconomic indicators. The book concludes by going beyond the UN structures to discuss other adjusted macroeconomic measures and how accounting data can be used to build them.
National Environmental Accounting is a non-technical introduction to an increasingly important field. It is a must-read for anyone interested in how environmental accounts can help society move towards greater sustainability.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2005. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Johnson, Kirk. "Counting the Costs of Growth With a Forest of Formulas," New York Times, 23 November 2003, Week in Review. [full text]
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 11/23/2003. 1 comments. Permanent link.
Kilgannon, Corey. "Get That Maple an Accountant! - Study Attaches Dollar Signs to City's Hardworking Trees" New York Times, 12 May 2003, page A23. [full text; survey site]
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/12/2003. 1 comments. Permanent link.
Weitzman, Martin L. Income, Wealth, and the Maximum Principle. Harvard University Press, 2003. [table of contents; order book]
From the publisher: This compact and original exposition of optimal control theory and applications is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in economics. It presents a new elementary yet rigorous proof of the maximum principle and a new way of applying the principle that will enable students to solve any one-dimensional problem routinely. Its unified framework illuminates many famous economic examples and models.
This work also emphasizes the connection between optimal control theory and the classical themes of capital theory. It offers a fresh approach to fundamental questions such as: What is income? How should it be measured? What is its relation to wealth?
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2003. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Bartelmus, Peter; Seifert, Eberhard (Eds.). Green Accounting. The International Library of Environmental Economics and Policy Series, Ashgate Publishing, 2003. [table of contents; order book]
From the publisher: Our cherished economic indicators of income, product, consumption and capital fail in taking a long-term view of social progress. They do not account for environmental deterioration, which impairs the quality of life of present and future generations, and hence the sustainability of development. 'Greening' the conventional national (and corporate) accounts introduces environmental impacts and costs into these accounts and balances. The result is a new compass for steering the economy towards sustainability, which may change not only our main measures of economic performance but also the basic tenets of environmental and resource policies.
The book presents path breaking methodological advances and case studies of environmental accounting, and discusses their use in environmental management and policies. In their introduction, the editors provide a critical perspective of historical developments and current debates. For them, green accounting is the best available tool for defining and assessing the environmental dimension of sustainable development. The sustainability of the paradigm may depend on it.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2003. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"A knight's errand: Sir Crispin Tickell addresses students on dangers facing environment," Harvard Gazette, 12 December 2002. [full text]
In a talk at Harvard, Sir Crispin Tickell emphasizes the importance of looking at ecological footprints and of coming up with a new sort of economics that takes environmental costs into consideration. "The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment," he said. "Communism collapsed because it didn't recognize markets. Capitalism may collapse because it doesn't recognize ecology."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 12/12/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Moss, David A. and Sarah Brennan. 2002. "National Economic Accounting: Past, Present, and Future," Harvard Business School Case 9-703-026. [order case from publisher]
Synopsis: Presents the fundamentals of GDP accounting (including definitions, etc.), examines the history of national accounting, and surveys the international debate over "Green GDP." The first section explains the basic rules and definitions of national economic accounting and the meaning of GDP versus NDP. The second section provides historical context for the development of national income estimates, 1886 to 1940, culminating in the creation of GNP by the U.S. Department of Commerce in the 1940s. The third and final section discusses the standard imputations currently made to reflect nonprice economic activity (e.g., for owner-occupied housing and government services) and explores the debate over imputations for natural resources and environmental quality.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 12/04/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Asheim, Geir B. "Green National Accounting for Welfare and Sustainability: A Taxonomy of Assumptions and Results." Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research Working Paper Series Nr. 827, December 2002. [full text]
Abstract: This paper summarizes assumptions made and results obtained in parts of the literature on welfare and sustainability accounting. I consider five different assumptions that can be imposed independently of each other, producing 32 different combinations. This taxonomy is used to organize results in welfare and sustainability accounting. The analysis illustrates how stronger results require stronger assumptions and thereby impose harder informational requirements.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 12/01/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Kletzan, Daniela; Köppl, Angela; Kratena, Kurt and Wüger, Michael. "Economic Modelling of Sustainable Structures in Private Consumption: An Analysis of Heating and Transport." Austrian Institute of Economic Research, December 2002.
Abstract: Changes in consumption processes are increasingly recognised as important steps towards sustainable development. The empirical study for Austria aims at integrating aspects of sustainable consumption into economic modelling. This is done within a microeconomic consumption model using household production functions for the relevant services for mobility and heating. In contrast to a strictly neo-classical model, in this approach capital stock adjustment is not solely determined by relative prices but institutional and non-economic factors as well. The demand for goods and services is then the result of the decisions with respect to the capital stock.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 12/01/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Christensen, Jon. "Fiscal Accountability Concerns Come to Conservation," New York Times, 5 November 2002, Science Times. [full text]
Article on how economic valuation plays an increasingly larger role in conservation work.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 11/05/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Balmford, Andrew; Bruner, Aaron; Cooper, Philip; Costanza, Robert; Farber, Stephen; Green, Rhys E.; Jenkins, Martin; Jefferiss. Paul; Jessamy, Valma; Madden, Joah; Munro, Kat; Myers, Norman; Naeem, Shahid; Paavola, Jouni; Rayment, Matthew; Rosendo, Sergio; Roughgarden, Joan; Trumper, Kate and Turner, R. Kerry. "Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature", Science 297 (5583), 9 August 2002: p. 950-953. [full text (for online subscribers of Science)]
Arguments for why natural habitats "generate marked economic benefits, which the available data suggest exeed those obtained from continued habitat conversion." The article abstract continues by saying that "We estimate that the overall benefit:cost ratio of an effective global program for the conservation of remaining wild nature is at least 100:1." This calculation is in essence a revision of Costanza et al.'s controversial 1997 Nature article.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 8/09/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"The Global Environment," The Economist, 6 July 2002, after p. 58. [full text]
In a 15-page survey on The Global Environment, The Economist's environment and energy correspondent Vijay Vaitheeswaran argues that "markets could be a potent force for greenery--if only greens could learn to love them." He quotes Gus Speth, head of Yale's environment school and formerly head of the World Resources Institute and UNDP, in saying that "not getting the prices right" was "the single biggest failure in environmental management." Furthermore, he cites the World Bank's Ian Johnson in saying that GDP and other economic indicators "are not measuring wealth creation properly because they ignore the effects of environmental degradation."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 7/06/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Nordhaus, William D. Recommendations to the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Improving the National Economic Accounts. Survey of Current Business, May 2002. [
full text]
Contains several recommendations on improving the national accounts, e.g.: "Recommendation 7. Among the priorities for nonmarket accounts is the development of a set of resource and environmental accounts."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/01/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"Leakey: Save the Serengeti," Harvard Gazette, 25 April 2002, p. 13. [full text]
Conservationist Richard Leakey emphasized the importance of putting a dollar value on nature in a talk on "National parks: Do they have a place in conservation strategies for the 21st century?": "How can we introduce thinking that puts a dollar value on nature, and on natural beauty?" Leakey asked. "Why should a Picasso be worth $40 million, appreciating every year," when the Serengeti isn't?
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 4/25/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"Value of Ecosystems," New York Times, Letters, 23 March 2002, p. A26. [full text]
Letter to the Editor by Sam Hitt, Executive Director of the Wild Watershed in response to a news article on "U.S. Acts to Shrink Endangered Species Habitats": Instead of caving in to West Coast developers, the Bush administration should thoroughly evaluate the economic advantages of protecting the habitats of endangered species. Flood control, water purification, waste recycling and maintaining wild pollinators are just a few of the ecosystem services provided by undisturbed habitats. Economists put the value of clean water alone in the billions of dollars. When watersheds are stripped and paved over, downstream users must pay for water filtering and washed-out bridges and roads. If endangered species habitat was properly valued, not one acre would be lost to short-sighted development.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/23/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"A worldly philosopher," The Economist, 16 March 2002, p. 78. [full article]
Obituary of James Tobin, summarizing his life's work. One of the paragraphs mentions his contribution to green accounting: "Today's environmentalists, for example, are in debt to Mr. Tobin. Working with a colleague at Yale, William Nordhaus, he was among the first to adjust GDP figures to reflect the true costs of environmental degradation as well as of traffic congestion and crime."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/16/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Mitchell, Alanna. "GDP value must reflect eco-wealth, report says," The Globe and Mail, 7 January 2002, p. A1. [newspaper]
North Americans must radically alter the way they calculate gross domestic product to take into account the use of each country's environmental wealth, says a hard-hitting new report from the international environmental watchdog set up under NAFTA.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/07/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Harris, Michael and Fraser, Iain. "Natural Resource Accounting in Theory and Practice: A Critical Assessment." The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Vol. 46, pp. 139-192, 2002. [abstract and full text (for a fee)]
Abstract: In this paper an extensive review of the theoretical and applied literature on natural resource accounting (NRA) is provided. The review begins by explaining the economic theory that underpins NRA, contrasting welfare and sustainability as policy goals, and presenting various distinct conceptions of national income. The state of play regarding official revisions to the system of national accounts (SNA) with respect to natural resources and the environment is presented and controversial areas are highlighted. Finally the economic literature on proposed revisions, and applied studies that have proceeded using these methods, is summarised and critiqued. We argue that much of the literature proceeds with weak conceptual foundations, and that typical case studies produce results that are ambiguous in interpretation. Moreover, we highlight fundamental tensions between economic theory and national accounting methodology, and conclude that one outcome of this has been the insufficient attention paid by economists to the revisions to the SNA; instead devoting time and effort to 'freelance' NRA case studies utilising sometimes ad hoc methods from the economic literature.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Daily, Gretchen C. and Katherine Ellison. 2002. The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable, Island Press. [order book]
Synopsis: Why shouldn't people who deplete our natural assets have to pay, and those who protect them reap profits? Conservation-minded entrepreneurs and others around the world are beginning to ask just that question, as the increasing scarcity of natural resources becomes a tangible threat to our own lives and our hopes for our children. The New Economy of Nature brings together Gretchen Daily, one of the world's leading ecologists, with Katherine Ellison, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, to offer an engaging and informative look at a new "new economy" – a system recognizing the economic value of natural systems and the potential profits in protecting them.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Banzhaf, H. Spencer and Smith, V. Kerry. 2002. "Green GDP: Adding Environmental Services to an Economy's Scorecard." The Resources for the Future Issue Brief Series on Sustainable Development. [full text]
An 8-page issue brief as well as a 2-page issue backgrounder explaining the basic arguments for environmental accounting.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Adger, W. Neil; Brown, K.; Cervigni, R. and Moran, D. "The functions and services of Mexico's forests." In: Pearce, D.W.; Pearce, C. and Palmer, C. (eds.) Valuing Environmental Benefits: Case Studies from the Developing World. 2002, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Conclusion: Forests are multi-functional ecosystems with numerous uses by local people and more distant beneficiaries. Failure to recognize and account for these multiple uses have led to the loss of forests observed on the global scale. In economic terms, it is the public good nature of the environmental services which leads to this detrimental resource use. This chapter has demonstrated the economic techniques for valuing these non-marketed services and has applied these techniques to the Mexican forest case. The results show an annual lower bound value of the services of Mexico's forests to be in the order of US$ 4 billion. These values stem from the non-marketed services provided by non-consumptive use; from future potential uses of the genetic resources and from pure existence values; and the largest proportion of economic value coming from the functional values of hydrological and carbon cycling.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2002. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Hambly, Bob. "Numbers," Time Magazine, 16 July 2001, Notebook, p. 15. [magazine]
Time's weekly "Numbers" column highlights a misuse of GDP calculations: "$800,000,000 – How much Los Angeles drivers contribute to the GDP by burning gas in traffic jams. (So what's the point? We spend too much time in traffic--or thanks, drivers, for beefing up the U.S. bottom line?)"
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 7/16/2001. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Banerjee, Neela. "There's No Accounting: The Economy's Apples and Oranges," New York Times, 6 May 2001, Week in Review. [full text]
Short article citing latest developments in the field, in the context of current energy policies.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/06/2001. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Heal, Geoffrey and Bengt Kriström, "National Income and the Environment", May 1998, revised May 2001. To be published in The Handbook of Environmental Economics, edited by Karl-Göran Mäler and Jeffrey Vincent, Elsevier Science. [ full text]
Comprehensive survey article, ranging from a discussion of the creation of national income accounts to recent developments in the field of green accounting. Stresses the importance of basing empirical studies on a firm theoretical foundation.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/01/2001. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Brown, Lester R. 2001. Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth. Earth Policy Institute. [full text]
Critique of the basic assumptions of neo-classical economics and suggestions for a new 'eco-econonmy.'
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2001. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Farzin, Y. Hossein. Sustainability, Hamiltonian Value, and NNP in a Cake-Eating Economy. University of California-Davis, Working paper (November 14, 2000). [download full text]
Abstract: This paper sheds further light on the relationships between the current-value Hamiltonian, net national product (NNP), and sustainability condition in the context of a cake-eating economy. It shows that the usual interpretation of the current-value Hamiltonian as the maximum sustainable consumption/utility level is not correct and that a general condition for sustainability in this sense is the stationarity of the current-value Hamiltonian. It also derives an explicit relationship between this condition and the condition for sustainability in the sense of "keeping the value of wealth intact." It then finds that while a cake-eating economy can never be sustainable in the former sense, it will be sustainable in the latter sense provided the preferences are presented by a logarithmic utility function. Further, the paper shows that, contrary to common belief, NNP is not, in general, equal to the current-value Hamiltonian, except for the highly special case of a linear utility function. It argues that, even when correctly adjusted to account for natural capital depreciation, NNP can still be a notoriously misleading indicator of true level of well-being because, depending on the degree of society's aversion to intergenerational inequality, it can underestimate or overestimate the current-value Hamiltonian along an optimal policy.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 11/14/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Hecht, Joy. Lessons Learned from Environmental Accounting: Findings from Nine Case Studies. Washington D.C.: IUCN (October 2000). [ full text]
Survey of green accounting activities in Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Canada, the Philippines, Namibia, Germany, and the United States.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 10/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Cosgrove, Sean; Niemi, Ernie and Fifield, Anne. Seeing the Forests for Their Green: Economic Benefits of Forest Protection, Recreation, and Restoration. Eugene, Oregon: ECONorthwest (August 2000). [summary, full text]
Study by ECONorthwest, an economics consulting firm. The study was commissioned by the Sierra Club. The three main conclusions: The timber industry does not play a special role in the economy, the timber industry and logging on federal lands are small parts of the economy, and unlogged forests are important to the economy.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 8/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
White, Alan T. "Putting a Price on Nature," Earthwatch Institute Journal, August 2000. Reprinted in: Ocean Seas: The Online Magazine for Sustainable Seas, October 2000, Vol. 3(10) [full text]
Short opinion piece arguing why "putting a value on nature is worth fighting for."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 8/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Nordhaus, William D. New Directions in national Economic Accounting. American Economics Review Vol. 90, No. 2, May 2000: 259-263. [ full text (for AEA members only)]
Presents several extensions to the traditional national income accounts including time use, human capital, and technological capital as well as green accounting. Nordhaus concludes by saying, "The purpose of this discussion has been to give a flavor of the exciting developments and prospects for extending the national economic accounts in new directions. The tentative forays in this field suggest that a full set of nonmarket accounts would provide a richer description of the totality of economic life and will challenge conventional wisdom in many areas."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Moulton, Brent R. Getting the 21st-Century GDP Right: What's Underway? American Economics Review Vol. 90, No. 2, May 2000: 253-258. [ full text (for AEA members only)]
Moulton is the Associate Director for National Income, Expenditure, and Wealth Accounts of the Bureau of Economic Analysis and hence responsible for BEA's activities in the area of (environmental) satellite accounts. He describes BEA's past work and plans for the future, which unfortunately exclude any work on its System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Satellite Accounts due to an explicit funding stop from Congress.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Boskin, Michael J. Economic Measurement: Progress and Challenges. American Economics Review Vol. 90, No. 2, May 2000: 247-252. [ full text (for AEA members only)]
The article describes several improvements in the core national income accounts. Hence, green accounting is left out of the discussion, since it "should be death with in the form of satellite accounting," as Boskin rightfully states. He answers his own question on whether national accounts should be extended to non-market activities by saying, "Nonmarket work time is perhaps the most important area for supplemental information. Natural resources and the environment are close behind."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
BioScience, Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics, Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000).
Special issues of BioScience focusing on several issues related to green accounting:
Norgaard, Richard B. Ecological Economics. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 291-291.
Barrett, Gary W. and Farina, Almo. Integrating Ecology and Economics. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 311-312.
Farina, Almo. The Cultural Landscape as a Model for the Integration of Ecology and Economics. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 313-320.
Di Castri, Francesco. Ecology in a Context of Economic Globalization. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 321-332.
O'Neill, Robert V. and Kahn, James R. Homo economus as a Keystone Species. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 333-337.
Dasgupta, Partha; Levin, Simon and Lubchenco, Jane. Economic Pathways to Ecological Sustainability. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 339-345.
Gatto, Marino and De Leo, Giulio A. Pricing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: The Never-Ending Story. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 347-355.
Naveh, Zev. The Total Human Ecosystem: Integrating Ecology and Economics. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 357-361.
Barrett, Gary W. and Odum, Eugene P. The Twenty-First Century: The World at Carrying Capacity. BioScience Special Issue: Integrating Ecology and Economics. Vol. 50, No. 4 (April 2000): 363-368.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 4/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Darmstadter, Joel, "Greening the GDP: Is it desirable? Is it feasible?," Resources 139, Spring 2000: 11-15. [ full text]
Review of green accounting efforts in the US and of Nature's Numbers. Includes an assessment by William D. Nordhaus, one of the author's of Nature's Numbers on "Future Directions for Environmental and Augmented National Accounts." Both urge Congress to continue funding of BEA's green accounting efforts – a call which until now has not been answered.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/21/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
"Report of the London Group on Environmental Accounting," Thirty-first session of the Statistical Commission, 29 February - 3 March 2000, E/CN.3/2000/12.
Outline of the SEEA revision process.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/03/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Jacobs, Jane. The Nature of Economies, March 2000, Modern Library. [order book]
A witty treatise of the fundamental issues concerning the inner workings of our economy. The book's premise is that the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the world around us--a pretty logical statement, yet in complete contrast to traditional economic thought. An accessible introduction for anybody interested in a more 'ecological' or green economy.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Economic Report of the President 2000, Washington, D.C. (February 2000). [full text]
Includes an entire chapter on "Making Markets Work for the Environment" (chapter 7), which in turn discusses green accounting (pages 244-246). It reviews the findings from Nature's Numbers and concludes that "This [green accounting] information, combined with traditional measures of economic welfare such as gross domestic product, can provide a more complete picture of this Nation’s economic development" (244).
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 2/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Vincent, Jeffrey R. (Ed.). Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000). [journal information]
Special issues of Environment and Development Economics exclusively focusing on green accounting. Vincent concludes his introduction by saying that, "While economists are often critical of green accounting systems proposed by national accountants, we really have not yet drawn fully on the resources of our discipline to offer a coherent, alternative set of operational guidelines. The most important contribution of the papers in the special issue is not so much the advances they report, though these are indeed valuable, but rather the improved position they provide for rising to this challenge." The individual papers in this issues:
Vincent, Jeffrey R. Green accounting: from theory to practice. Introduction to the Special Issue. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 13-24.
Asheim, Geir B. Green national accounting: why and how? Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 25-48.
Cairns, Robert D. Sustainability accounting and green accounting. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 49-54.
Weitzman, Martin L. The linearised Hamiltonian as comprehensive NDP. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 55-68.
Dasgupta, Partha and Mäler, Karl-Göran. Net national product, wealth, and social well-being. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 69-93.
Horan, Richard D.; Hrubovack, James; Shortle, James S. and Bulte, Erwin H. Accounting for the distributional impacts of policy in the green accounts. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 95-108.
Davis, Graham A. and Moore, David J. Valuing mineral stocks and depletion in green national income accounts. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 109-127.
Da Motta, Ronaldo Seroa and Do Amaral, Claudio A. Estimating timber depreciation in the Brazilian Amazon. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 129-142.
Haripriya, G.S. Integrating forest resources into the system of national accounts in Maharashtra, India. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 143-156.
Hassan, Rashid M. Improved measure of the contribution of cultivated forests to national income and wealth in South Africa. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 157-176.
Bailey, Ralph W. and Clarke, Rosemary. Global macroeconomic sustainability: a dynamic general equilibrium approach. Environment and Development Economics Special Issue: Advances in Green Accounting. Vol. 5, Parts 1 & 2 (February and May 2000): 177-194.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 2/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Sedell, James; Sharpe, Maitland; Dravnieks Apple, Daina; Copenhagen, Max and Furniss, Mike. Water and the Forest Service. USDA Forest Service, Policy Analysis. FS-660 (January 2000). [ full text]
Estimates the total economic impact of water from national forests.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Heal, Geoffrey. 2000. Nature and the Marketplace. Island Press. [order book]
Comprehensive look at economics and the environment. Includes a chapter on institutional challenges, which also discusses green accounting.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Davidson, Eric D. You Can't Eat GNP: Economics as if Ecology Mattered, 2000, Perseus Publishing. [excerpts, order book; book review in Grist Magazine]
Accessible description of the problems with our national income accounting system. Puts forward a convincing argument for green accounting from an environmentalist perspective.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Ekins, Paul. Economic growth and environmental sustainability: the prospects for green growth, 2000, Routledge, New York. [order book]
Chapter 5 is on "Accounting for production and the environment." It first presents a general argument for green accounting and then discusses specific theoretical and methodological issues. Ekins also puts forward the argument for developing a so-called 'Sustainability Gap' figure in both physical and monetary terms instead of actually calculating 'Green GDP.'
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
UN Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, Statistical Division. 2000. Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting: An Operational Manual. New York: UN.
This Operational Manual is a complement to the 1993 SEEA and has been published by the Nairobi Group on Environmental Accounting.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2000. 1 comments. Permanent link.
Jackson, Dudley. The New National Accounts. Edward Elgar, 2000.
A comprehensive overview of the both the SNA 1993 and the European System of Accounts 1995.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Ehrlich, Anne and Paul. In: "Getting it Right: A Sierra Roundtable discussion on building a greener future," Sierra January/February 2000: 44. [full text]
Sierra asked a group of environmental visionaries too brainstorm ideas for "the next millennium," and Anne and Paul Ehrlich's response includes a reference to green accounting: "One example is the utter inadequacy of GNP as an indicator of the state of society; another is the failure of most economists to recognize the value of 'natural capital,' including biodiversity, productive land, and fresh water."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/2000. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Gersh, Jeff. "Bigger, badder – but not better: a new breed of economists exposes the myth of unlimited growth." The Amicus Journal, Vol. 20(4), Winter 1999: 32-36.[journal]
Critique of GNP as a value of social progress.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 12/01/1999. 1 comments. Permanent link.
Hecht, Joy E, "Environmental Accounting: Where we are now, where we are heading," Resources 135, Spring 1999: 14-17. [ full text]
Concise overview of what's at stake, why to do it, and how to get there. Some focus on the situation in the United States.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/21/1999. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Lanza, Alessandro (Ed.). Resources Accounting in China, The FEEM/Kluwer International Series on Economics, Energy and Environment (March 1999) [book description and order information]
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 3/01/1999. 0 comments. Permanent link.
European Commission, The European Framework for Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting for Forests (IEEAF), Luxembourg (1999).
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1999. 0 comments. Permanent link.
J. R. Vincent, "Net Accumulation of Timber Resources," Review of Income and Wealth 45(2), 251-262 (1999).
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1999. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Vincent, Jeffrey R. A Framework for Forest Accounting. Forest Science, Vol. 45, No. 4 (1999): 552-561.
Discussion of theoretical issues involved in integrating timber and non-timber forest services into a consistent green accounting framework.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1999. 0 comments. Permanent link.
W. D. Nordhaus and E. C. Kokkelenberg, Nature's numbers: expanding the national economic accounts to include the environment, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press (1999). [full text]
National Academy Study reviewing the state of green accounting in the US.
Description: In order to really see the forest, what's the best way to count the trees? Understanding how the economy interacts with the environment has important implications for policy, regulatory, and business decisions. How should our national economic accounts recognize the increasing interest in and importance of the environment?
Nature's Numbers responds to concerns about how the United States should make these measurements. The book recommends how to incorporate environmental and other non-market measures into the nation's income and product accounts.
The panel explores alternative approaches to environmental accounting, including those used in other countries, and addresses thorny issues such as how to measure the stocks of natural resources and how to value non-market activities and assets. Specific applications to subsoil minerals, forests, and clean air show how the general principles can be applied.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1999. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Bartelmus, Peter. Greening the National Accounts: Approach and Policy Use. United Nations, Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, Working Paper Series No. 3 (January 1999). [ full text]
Discusses the necessary extension of the asset boundary of conventional national accounts in order to account for environmental assets. Presents to main policy implications of green accounting: "(a) the use of environmentally adjusted 'eco-nomic' variables in macroeconomic policy and (b) the setting of market instruments of cost internalization according to the environmental cost generated by economic agents."
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1999. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Farrell, Alex and Hart, Marueen. "What does sustainability really mean? The search for useful indicators." Environment, Vol. 40(9), November 1998: 4-9, 26-31. [full text]
Explores various sustainability indices, including a discussion of green accounting.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 11/01/1998. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Liu, Xuelin. "Adjusted forest accounts for China," Ecological Economics 27 (1998): 283-298. [journal information]
Abstract: So far there is no unified rule on the incorporation of degradation of environmental capital into national income accounting procedure. Net national product is currently derived by deducting from gross product the depreciation of man-made capital only. Deducting depreciation of natural capital in national income can provide a better indicator of the `green' net national product. The contribution of this paper is to show how one can use two methodologies in deriving `green' net national product. This paper estimates the depreciation of forest resources in national accounts for China from 1976 to 1992. The procedure of calculation is described in the paper by valuing the changes of forest resources. Two alternative approaches are used: the net price approach and the user cost approach. By using the net price approach both physical and monetary accounts are computed to derive forest depreciation. In the user cost approach 0, 5 and 10% discount rates are used to derive the depreciation. Measuring sustainability is proceeded by the level of net investment. Both approaches show that the development of the forest sector is not sustainable due to the negative net investment.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1998. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Simpson, R. David. "Economic Analysis and Ecosystems: Some Concepts and Issues." Ecological Applications, 1998, 2, pp. 343-349. Reprinted in: Stavins, Robert N. Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings, 2000, fourth edition, W.W. Norton, pp. 529-541. [table of contents]
Discussion of the underlying differences between the economic and ecological views of the world.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1998. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Kunte, Arundhati; Hamilton, Kirk; Dixon, John and Clemens, Michael. "Estimating National Wealth: Methodology and Results." Environment Department Paper 57. World Bank, Environment Department, Washington, D.C. (1998). [full text]
Presents estimates of total national wealth, including human resources, natural capital, and produced assets. Also includes a discussion on estimating rental values for timber and sub-soil assets.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1998. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Heal, Geoffrey. 1998. Valuing the Future: Economic Theory and Sustainability. Columbia University Press. [table of contents]
Rigorous analysis of sustainability within the context of the neo-classical economic framework as well as alternative models.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1998. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Suter, Keith. "Why Don't Trees Count In Economics?" SLAB, Online Science Magazine of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1998. [full text]
Very accessible introduction to issues involving green accounting.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1998. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Econnections: Linking the environment and the economy. December 1997, Statistics Canada No. 16-505-GPE, Ottawa, Ontario. [Table of Contents]
Subtitel: "Concepts, Sources and Methods of the Canadian System of Environmental and Resource Accounts." Comprehensive survey of Statistics Canada's green accounting efforts. Updated version published in 2001.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 12/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Haynes, Richard W. and A.L. Horne. "Chapter 6: Economic Assessment of the Basin." In An Assessment of Ecosystem Components in the Interior Columbia Basin and Portions of the Klamath and Great Basins, Volume IV. Edited by T.M. Quigley and S.J. Arbelbide. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-405. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station (June 1997). [summary]
Comprehensive report documenting the importance of the interior Columbia Basin's ecosystems. Chapter 6 focuses on the economic impact.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 6/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Costanza, Robert; d'Arge, Ralph; de Groot, Rudolf; Farber, Stephen; Grassot, Monica; Hannon, Bruce; Limburg, Karin; Naeem, Shahid; O'Neill, Robert V.; Paruelo, Jose; Raskin, Robert G.; Sutton, Paul and van den Belt, Marjan. "The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital." Nature Vol. 387, 15 May 1997: 253-280.
Controversial article attempting to estimate the total value of the world's ecosystem services. A follow-up article of sorts adressing some of the criticism was published in August 2002 in Science.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 5/15/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Daily, Gretchen C. (Ed.). Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Island Press, February 1997. [order book]
Comprehensive treatment of ecosystem services and how we depend on them. Includes several case studies of different ecosystems with lists of services provided by each.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 2/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
J. R. Vincent and J. M. Hartwick, "Accounting for the Benefits of Forest Resources: Concepts and Experience," Report prepared for the UN Food and Agricultural Organization Forestry Department, Rome (1997).
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Weitzman, Martin L. and Löfgren, Karl-Gustaf. "On the Welfare Significance of Green Accounting as Taught by Parable." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 32 (1997): 139-153. [abstract]
Extension of the seminal 1976 paper by Weitzman "On the Welfare Significance of Green Accounting in a Dynamic Economy" to include labor-augmenting technological progress.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Committee on Valuing Ground Water, National Research Council. Valuing Ground Water: Economic Concepts and Approaches, 1997, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. [full text]
Publisher's description: Because water in the United State has not been traded in markets, there is no meaningful estimate of what it would cost if it were traded. But failing to establish ground water's value--for in situ uses such as sustaining wetlands as well as for extractive uses such as agriculture--will lead to continued overuse and degradation of the nation's aquifers.
In Valuing Ground Water an interdisciplinary committee integrates the latest economic, legal, and physical knowledge about ground water and methods for valuing this resource, making it comprehensible to decisionmakers involved in Superfund cleanup efforts, local wellhead protection programs, water allocation, and other water-related management issues. Using the concept of total economic value, this volume provides a framework for calculating the economic value of ground water and evaluating tradeoffs between competing uses of it. Included are seven case studies where ground-water valuation has been or could be used in decisionmaking.
The committee examines trends in ground-water management, factors that contribute to its value, and issues surrounding ground-water allocation and legal rights to its use. The book discusses economic valuation of natural resources and reviews several valuation methods.
Presenting conclusions, recommendations, and research priorities, Valuing Ground Water will be of interest to those concerned about ground-water issues: policymakers, regulators, economists, attorneys, researchers, resource managers, and environmental advocates.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Bartelmus, Peter. "The Value of Nature: Valuation and Evaluation in Environmental Accounting. United Nations, Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis," 1997, Working Paper Series No. 15. [ full text]
Discusses the different concepts of "value" (as used by economists, environmentalists, and accountants), then goes on to discuss valuation techniques, and finally concludes with a section on evaluation; i.e. using green accounts and indicators of sustainable development in actual policy decisions.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Ackerman, Frank, David Kiron, Neva R. Goodwin, Jonathan M. Harris, and Kevin Gallagher (Eds.). 1997. Human Well-Being and Economic Goals. Frontier Issues in Economic Thought, Volume 3. Island Press. [table of contents, order book]
Compendium of articles related to various aspects of the shortcomings of mainstream economics in aiding policy decisions to maximize human well-being rather than mere economic output. Includes two section directly dealing with the shortcomings of our national income accounting system and several articles focusing on the environment. Part X provides a comprehensive overview of developments in national income accounts including some of the most recent work on alternatives to the SNA as well as extensions in form of satellite accounts.
Posted by Gernot Wagner on 1/01/1997. 0 comments. Permanent link.
Hamilton, Kirk and Atkinson, Giles. "Air pollution and green accounts." Energy Policy, July 1996, Vol. 24, No. 7, pp. 675-684. [journal information]
Abstract: A simple model treating air emissions as cumulative pollutants is used to derive measures of 'green net national product.' The model implies that pollution emissions are properly valued at their marginal social costs in the measurement of green NNP. The level of genuine savings, net savings less the value of resource deplet