The Greenlandic Economy – Structure and Prospects

Torben M. Andersen ()
Additional contact information
Torben M. Andersen: Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark, Postal: 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University

Abstract: Greenland is a vast country with a small and geographically dispersed population. These conditioning factors pose a particular challenge for a natural resource-based economy. Greenland is thus in many respects unique and yet has to find a way to ensure a self-sustaining economy. This requires an economic development which addresses current economic and social problems, makes the economy independent of transfers from outside, and provides for a satisfactory increase in living standards. Essential for this is a transformation such that the economy does not only rely on renewable natural resources (fish) but also on non-renewable natural resources (minerals). As a background for discussing these issues, the paper first briefly lays out the historical development of Greenland. The overall structure of the Greenlandic economy is laid out, and the major challenges to achieve a self-sustaining economy are discussed.

Keywords: Economic development; economic independence; small-states; natural resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O52 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2015-07-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://repec.econ.au.dk/repec/afn/wp/15/wp15_14.pdf (application/pdf)

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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aah:aarhec:2015-14

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().