Green Accounting Bibliography

"Grossly distorted picture"

2006-02-09T20:55:00.000-05:00

"Grossly distorted picture." The Economist, February 9, 2006. [full text]

"It's high time that economists looked at more than just GDP."

Chinese Green GDP

2005-10-20T15:29:00.000-04:00

"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."

"Economics in a Full World"

2005-08-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

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.

Green Accounting for Agriculture

2005-07-01T13:30:00.000-04:00

Buckwell, Allan. "Green Accounting for Agriculture." Journal of Agricultural Economics, Presidential Address, July 2005, 56(2), p. 187. [article]

"Rescuing environmentalism"

2005-04-21T00:10:00.000-04:00

"Rescuing environmentalism" and "Are you being served?," The Economist, 21 April 2005. [leader and article]

"Fixing GDP: Green Accounting in the United States"

2005-04-09T00:26:00.000-04:00

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]

"Green price indices"

2005-03-01T17:19:00.000-05:00

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.

India

2005-01-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

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).

National Environmental Accounting

2005-01-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

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.

"Counting the Costs of Growth With a Forest of Formulas"

2003-11-23T00:32:00.000-05:00

Johnson, Kirk. "Counting the Costs of Growth With a Forest of Formulas," New York Times, 23 November 2003, Week in Review. [full text]

"Get That Maple an Accountant!"

2003-05-12T00:44:00.000-04:00

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]

Income, Wealth, and the Maximum Principle

2003-01-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

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?

Green Accounting

2003-01-01T17:16:00.000-05:00

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.

"A knight's errand: Sir Crispin Tickell addresses students on dangers facing environment"

2002-12-12T00:47:00.000-05:00

"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."

HBS Case

2002-12-04T17:12:00.000-05:00

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.

"Taxonomy of Assumptions and Results"

2002-12-01T17:15:00.000-05:00

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.

Austria

2002-12-01T17:14:00.000-05:00

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.

"Fiscal Accountability Concerns Come to Conservation"

2002-11-05T00:48:00.000-05:00

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.

"Economic Reasons for Conserving Wild Nature"

2002-08-09T17:13:00.000-04:00

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.

"The Global Environment"

2002-07-06T00:49:00.000-04:00

"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."

"Recommendations to the BEA"

2002-05-01T17:10:00.000-04:00

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."

"Leakey: Save the Serengeti"

2002-04-25T00:51:00.001-04:00

"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?

"Value of Ecosystems"

2002-03-23T00:52:00.000-05:00

"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.

"A worldly philosopher"

2002-03-16T00:56:00.000-05:00

"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."

"GDP value must reflect eco-wealth, report says"

2002-01-07T00:57:00.000-05:00

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.