The impact of renewable versus non-renewable natural capital on economic growth

Farid Gasmi, Denis Couvet and Laura Recuero Virto

No 19-1058, TSE Working Papers from Toulouse School of Economics (TSE)

Abstract: In a dataset on 83 countries covering the years 1960 through 2009, we find a negative indirect effect of the share of renewable natural capital in wealth on economic growth transmitted through demographic factors, more specifically, population fertility. In contrast, in countries with lower income inequality and higher institutional quality, the share of non-renewable natural capital in wealth has a direct positive impact on growth. We also find that countries with higher income per capita, human development, and institutional quality have a higher share of renewable natural capital per capita, but a lower share of renewable natural capital in wealth. Renewable natural capital is thus valuable for the population and of primary concern for empowered countries, even though it contributes less to wealth and economic growth. Our results raise serious questions about the way wealth and growth are defined in economics when one investigates the impact of natural capital and point to the importance of preserving natural capital, particularly, in less developed countries.

Keywords: Natural capital; renewable; non-renewable; economic growth. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O13 Q20 Q30 Q32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-gro
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/TSE/docu ... 2019/wp_tse_1058.pdf Full Text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Impact of Renewable Versus Non-renewable Natural Capital on Economic Growth (2020)
Working Paper: The impact of renewable versus non-renewable natural capital on economic growth (2020)
Working Paper: The impact of renewable versus non-renewable natural capital on economic growth (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tse:wpaper:123807

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in TSE Working Papers from Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (com@tse-fr.eu).