The knowledge economy: Key to sustainable development?

Lukas Rezny, James Buchanan White and Petra Maresova

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2019, vol. 51, issue C, 291-300

Abstract: A perfect storm of resource depletion and environmental degradation looms as the world’s biggest economies are plagued by low or even negative growth rates. The knowledge economy is often presented as a way of a radical societal transformation to achieve both higher and sustainable economic growth, and as a way out of the predicament of increasing resource scarcity and climate disruption. This paper explores the relationship between the knowledge economy index and consecutive economic growth rates along with various indicators of resource consumption to determine the relative success of this supposedly unique mode of economic development. Our findings show the failure of advanced knowledge economies to grow in the post-2008 period. We have not found any evidence of higher resource efficiency of advanced knowledge economies when their resource consumption is assessed using the material footprint. Through comparison of coal and oil consumption with changes in knowledge economy rankings from 1995 to 2012, we found no regular pattern of diminishing reliance on these increasingly scarce and expensive natural resources by successfully developing knowledge economies.

Keywords: Knowledge economy; Sustainability; Economic growth; Non-renewable natural resource consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:streco:v:51:y:2019:i:c:p:291-300

DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2019.02.003

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