Roads to prosperity without environmental poverty: The role of impatience

Evangelos Dioikitopoulos, Sugata Ghosh, Christos Karydas and Eugenia Vella

Economics Letters, 2020, vol. 186, issue C

Abstract: This paper advances the hypothesis that impatience negatively depends on environmental quality and aims to explain why some countries stagnate in an ‘environmental and economic poverty trap’. For low levels of environmental quality, advancements in productivity lead impatient agents to direct income increases to consumption (rather than savings), depleting further the environment. Given that productivity increases do not help such economies to escape the trap (contrary to perceived notions), policies should focus on the implementation of behavioral changes.

Keywords: Time preference; Economic growth; Environmental poverty traps; Economic poverty traps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D90 E21 E70 O44 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:186:y:2020:i:c:s0165176519304392

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2019.108870

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