Material flow accounting of Spain

Sílvia Cañellas, Ana Citlalic González, Ignasi Puig Ventosa, Daniela Russi, Cristina Sendra and Amalia Sojo
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Sílvia Cañellas: Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Ana Citlalic González: Departament d'Economia i d'Història Econòmica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Ignasi Puig Ventosa: ENT Medi Ambient i Gestió
Daniela Russi: Departament d'Economia i d'Història Econòmica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Cristina Sendra: Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Amalia Sojo: Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

No 2005_02, UHE Working papers from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Unitat d'Història Econòmica

Abstract: Material throughput is a means of measuring the so-called social metabolism, or physical dimensions of a society’s consumption, and can be taken as an indirect and approximate indicator of sustainability. Material flow accounting can be used to test the dematerialisation hypothesis, the idea that technological progress causes a decrease in total material used (strong dematerialisation) or material used per monetary unit of output (weak dematerialisation). This paper sets out the results of a material flow analysis for Spain for the period from 1980 to 2000. The analysis reveals that neither strong nor weak dematerialisation took place during the period analysed. Although the population did not increase considerably, materials mobilised by the Spanish economy (DMI) increased by 85% in absolute terms, surpassing GDP growth. In addition, Spain became more dependent on external trade in physical terms. In fact, its imports are more than twice the amount of its exports in terms of weight.

Keywords: material flow accounting; Spain; dematerialisation; external trade; environmental Kuznets curve; economic growth; social metabolism. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2005-07
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aub:uhewps:2005_02

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