[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/canjec/v40y2007i1p1-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Viewpoint: Sustainability: Malthus revisited?

Author

Listed:
  • James A. Brander
Abstract
. The sustainability debate concerns whether the world will experience stable or improving living standards for the foreseeable future, or whether the current trajectory will overtax the natural environment, leading to a ‘crash’ in living standards. This paper selectively reviews relevant research, focusing on both ecological concerns and technological progress, and asks whether sustainability would be problematic without rapid population growth. I suggest that continued demographic transition to lower fertility is the primary requirement for achieving sustainable development. This is, effectively, a modern translation of Malthus (1798). The paper also discusses the role of the Malthusian cycle in human evolution. Le débat sur la durabilité pose la question à savoir si le monde va faire l’expérience d’un accroissement des niveaux de vie dans un avenir prévisible ou si la trajectoire présente va vite pressurer l’environnement naturel et engendrer une chute des niveaux de vie? Ce texte fait une revue sélective de la recherche pertinente, mettant l’accent sur les problèmes écologiques et le progrès technologique, et se demande si la durabilité serait problématique si l’on n’avait pas une croissance démographique rapide. L’auteur suggère que la transition démographique continue vers une fécondité plus faible est le prérequis primordial dans la quête d’un développement durable. Il s’agit d’une version moderne de Malthus (1798). Ce texte discute aussi du rôle du cycle malthusien dans l’évolution humaine.

Suggested Citation

  • James A. Brander, 2007. "Viewpoint: Sustainability: Malthus revisited?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(1), pages 1-38, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:40:y:2007:i:1:p:1-38
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.00398.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.00398.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.00398.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oded Galor & Omer Moav, 2002. "Natural Selection and the Origin of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1133-1191.
    2. Pawlowski, Christopher W. & Fath, Brian D. & Mayer, Audrey L. & Cabezas, Heriberto, 2005. "Towards a sustainability index using information theory," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 1221-1231.
    3. Lomborg,Bjørn, 2001. "The Skeptical Environmentalist," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521010689, September.
    4. Arthur Robson & Hillard Kaplan, 2006. "Viewpoint: The economics of hunter-gatherer societies and the evolution of human characteristics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 39(2), pages 375-398, May.
    5. Brander, James A. & Scott Taylor, M., 1997. "International trade between consumer and conservationist countries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 267-297, November.
    6. David N. Weil & Oded Galor, 1999. "From Malthusian Stagnation to Modern Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 150-154, May.
    7. Jonathan M. Gregory & Philippe Huybrechts & Sarah C. B. Raper, 2004. "Threatened loss of the Greenland ice-sheet," Nature, Nature, vol. 428(6983), pages 616-616, April.
    8. Pezzey, John C. V. & Anderies, John M., 2003. "The effect of subsistence on collapse and institutional adaptation in population-resource societies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 299-320, October.
    9. Smith, Vernon L, 1975. "The Primitive Hunter Culture, Pleistocene Extinction, and the Rise of Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(4), pages 727-755, August.
    10. Brander, James A & Taylor, M Scott, 1998. "The Simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model of Renewable Resource Use," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 119-138, March.
    11. Dalton, Thomas R. & Coats, R. Morris & Asrabadi, Badiollah R., 2005. "Renewable resources, property-rights regimes and endogenous growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 31-41, January.
    12. Good, David H. & Reuveny, Rafael, 2006. "The fate of Easter Island: The limits of resource management institutions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 473-490, June.
    13. R. Morris Coats & Thomas R. Dalton, 2000. "Could institutional reform have saved Easter Island?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 10(5), pages 489-505.
    14. Malthus, Thomas Robert, 1798. "An Essay on the Principle of Population," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number malthus1798.
    15. Arthur J. Robson & Hillard S. Kaplan, 2003. "The Evolution of Human Life Expectancy and Intelligence in Hunter-Gatherer Economies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 150-169, March.
    16. Brander, James A & Dowrick, Steve, 1994. "The Role of Fertility and Population in Economic Growth: Empirical Results from Aggregate Cross-National Data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-25.
    17. Michael Kremer, 1993. "Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 681-716.
    18. Harford, Jon D, 1998. "The Ultimate Externality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 260-265, March.
    19. Arthur J. Robson, 2007. "A 'Bioeconomic' View of the Neolithic and Recent Demographic Transitions," Discussion Papers dp07-02, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephen P. Barrows, 2010. "The Law of Population and the Austrian School," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(4), pages 1178-1205, October.
    2. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2008. "Inconsistency between a criterion and the initial conditions," MPRA Paper 6792, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2007. "Switching to a sustainable efficient extraction path," MPRA Paper 2976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. repec:ags:ijag24:346853 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Begüm Güler & Füsun Küçükbay, 2022. "Does Inclusion in the Sustainability Index Contribute to the Financial Performance of the Companies: Evidence from Developing Countries," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 66(66), pages 307-317, December.
    6. N. P. Hariram & K. B. Mekha & Vipinraj Suganthan & K. Sudhakar, 2023. "Sustainalism: An Integrated Socio-Economic-Environmental Model to Address Sustainable Development and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-37, July.
    7. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2008. "Sustainable growth in a resource-based economy: the extraction-saving relationship," MPRA Paper 12350, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Jana, Arjun & Goli, Srinivas, 2023. "Gazing at Long-term Linkages Between Agricultural Land Use and Population Growth in India: An Inverted ‘U-Shape’ Relationship," MPRA Paper 121803, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Pani, Ratnakar & Mukhopadhyay, Ujjaini, 2013. "Management accounting approach to analyse energy related CO2 emission: A variance analysis study of top 10 emitters of the world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 639-655.
    10. Lafuite, A.-S. & Loreau, M., 2017. "Time-delayed biodiversity feedbacks and the sustainability of social-ecological systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 351(C), pages 96-108.
    11. Liu Xiangbo & Levy Ting & Chao Chi-Chur & Zhang Mengbo, 2017. "Is Population Growth Bad for the Environment?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(3), pages 1-14, July.
    12. Anamika Barua & Bandana Khataniar, 2015. "Strong or weak sustainability: a case study of emerging Asia," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 22(1), pages 1-31, June.
    13. Bazhanov, Andrei, 2008. "Sustainable growth: Compatibility between criterion and the initial state," MPRA Paper 9914, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roman, Sabin & Bullock, Seth & Brede, Markus, 2017. "Coupled Societies are More Robust Against Collapse: A Hypothetical Look at Easter Island," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 264-278.
    2. Nagase, Yoko & Uehara, Takuro, 2011. "Evolution of population-resource dynamics models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 9-17.
    3. Bulte, Erwin H. & Horan, Richard D. & Shogren, Jason F., 2006. "Coevolutionary Investments in Human Speech and Trade," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21318, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Kuil, Linda & Carr, Gemma & Prskawetz, Alexia & Salinas, José Luis & Viglione, Alberto & Blöschl, Günter, 2019. "Learning from the Ancient Maya: Exploring the Impact of Drought on Population Dynamics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 1-16.
    5. Horan, Richard D. & Shogren, Jason F. & Bulte, Erwin H., 2008. "Competitive Exclusion, Diversification, and the Origins of Agriculture," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6410, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Nils-Petter Lagerlof, 2002. "The Roads To and From Serfdom," Macroeconomics 0212011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Quamrul Ashraf & Stelios Michalopoulos, 2010. "The Climatic Origins of the Neolithic Revolution: Theory and Evidence," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0751, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    8. Rohan Dutta & David K. Levine & Nicholas W. Papageorge & Lemin Wu, 2018. "Entertaining Malthus: Bread, Circuses, And Economic Growth," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 358-380, January.
    9. Quamrul Ashraf & Oded Galor, 2011. "Dynamics and Stagnation in the Malthusian Epoch," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2003-2041, August.
    10. Arthur J. Robson, 2010. "A bioeconomic view of the Neolithic transition to agriculture," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(1), pages 280-300, February.
    11. Late Lawson & Lawson Late, 2020. "A simple Ricardo-Malthusian model of population, deforestation and biodiversity loss," Working Papers 2020.08, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    12. Zachary Dockstader & Chris T. Bauch & Madhur Anand, 2019. "Interconnections Accelerate Collapse in a Socio-Ecological Metapopulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-13, March.
    13. David Croix & Davide Dottori, 2008. "Easter Island’s collapse: a tale of a population race," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 27-55, March.
    14. Lagerlöf, Nils-Petter, 2007. "Long-Run Trends In Human Body Mass," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 367-387, June.
    15. Jacob L. Weisdorf, 2005. "From Foraging To Farming: Explaining The Neolithic Revolution," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 561-586, September.
    16. Barbier,Edward B., 2007. "Natural Resources and Economic Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521706513.
    17. Richard Horan & Erwin Bulte & Jason Shogren, 2008. "Coevolution of human speech and trade," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 293-313, December.
    18. Jacob L. Weisdorf, 2007. "Made for Toil: Natural selection at the dawn of agriculture," PSE Working Papers halshs-00587788, HAL.
    19. D'Alessandro, Simone, 2007. "Non-linear dynamics of population and natural resources: The emergence of different patterns of development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 473-481, May.
    20. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Holger Strulik, 2015. "The physiological foundations of the wealth of nations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 37-73, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:40:y:2007:i:1:p:1-38. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5982 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.