Challenges of wealth-based sustainability metrics: A critical appraisal

Eoin McLaughlin, Cristián Ducoing and Nick Hanley

No 2024-05, Accountancy, Economics, and Finance Working Papers from Heriot-Watt University, Department of Accountancy, Economics, and Finance

Abstract: There has been widespread debate about whether the way in which we measure economic activity is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. One aspect of this debate is to move away from measuring a nation's income (GDP) towards monitoring a nation's assets (their inclusive wealth), as a better indicator of sustainable economic development. We provide the first critical comparison of the approaches of leading international organisations - the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme - to estimating changes in wealth. Our paper reveals important inconsistencies in how these organisations measure sustainability and the conflicting messages that policy makers receive, despite a common underlying conceptual framework linking changes in a nation's wealth to future well-being. At the most extreme, countries that perform the worst according to the UN are shown to perform well according to the World Bank. This confusion in signals makes better policy making more difficult.

Keywords: Wealth; Sustainability; Natural Capital; Sustainable Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N10 N50 O13 O44 Q01 Q32 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-inv
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Journal Article: Challenges of wealth-based sustainability metrics: A critical appraisal (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:hwuaef:287770

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