Global macroeconomic sustainability: a dynamic general equilibrium approach

Ralph W. Bailey () and Rosemary Clarke

Environment and Development Economics, 2000, vol. 5, issue 01, pages 177-194

Abstract: Previous empirical studies assessing sustainability have adopted the weak sustainability indicator (WSI) which measures changes in the stock of physical and natural capital. Whereas these studies have been retrospective, we use a dynamic general equilibrium model to investigate global and regional sustainability over the period 1985 2050, focusing on fossil fuel extraction. Our standard scenario predicts increasing WSI values suggesting global sustainability in all periods to 2050 as, despite a rising world oil price, the introduction of backstop fuels in 2010 provides an alternative source of energy. A more pessimistic scenario examines possible outcomes in the absence of energy saving technological change and backstops fuels. WSI values still indicate global sustainability, though economic growth is only half that predicted by the more optimistic model, and two countries USA and Brazil are unsustainable.

Date: 2000

Downloads: (external link)
http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1355770X00000127 link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:endeec:v:5:y:2000:i:01:p:177-194_00

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Development Economics from Cambridge University Press
Address: The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU UK
Series data maintained by Mike Eden ().