Econ Dept Seminars

Lecture Details

Nick Hanley from the University of Stirling presents a seminar on the general topic of operationally measuring sustainable development. . The seminar introduces the main ways economists think about the ideas of "sustainability", Nick explains how economists ideas of substitutability between various measures of capital (physical, resource endowments broadly conceived, human capital, and social capital) used to generate long run consumption lead to conflict with ecological notions of capital where substitutability isnt a key idea, but where boundary and threshold notions...and their impact on consumption possibilities...does make a big difference. The empirical part of the seminar shows that trying to operationalize meaningful measures of sustainability is (1) difficult and (2) leads to differences from theoretical predictions. Enjoy. ps seee some discussion and commentary at httpuctv.canterbury.ac.nzpost1316