Book reviews
Book reviews
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DOI：
10.1080/13549830120091761
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发表时间：
2001-11
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
P. Ekins
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Ekins
你如何看待你所相信的东西？这两本书都强烈主张对政府政策进行彻底改革，以实现可持续发展。然而，一本是一本辩论激烈的经济学教科书，另一本是一本争论不休的教科书，提出了一项范围广泛、更具民粹主义色彩的改革议程。他们可能认同相同的理想，但当谈到他们的论点语言和预期受众的性质时，他们是截然不同的。在《经济增长和环境可持续发展》一书中，保罗·艾金斯选择通过传统学术经济学的框架来解决可持续发展问题。正如他解释的那样，“这本书是对环境可持续性、经济增长和人类福利之间关系的调查，重点是前两者”(第1页)。它通过仔细论证的理论和实证讨论来实现其目标，审查围绕环境和经济增长之间的相互作用的问题。它的基本论点是，经济增长可以在环境可持续性的情况下实现。艾金斯的前三章解释了他的条件，并为他的论点提供了背景。它们本身提供了有用的论文，进而解决了关于环境稀缺性、经济增长的意义和性质以及环境可持续发展的意义的不断发展的经济学论点。在第三章中，至关重要的是，“环境可持续性”是从关于“自然资本”估值的讨论中去掉的，而将其定义为维持重要的环境功能。这本书的中间部分考虑了与环境有关的特定经济问题。因此，第5章论述在国民账户中应如何对待环境，第6章与人口、资源和技术的联系，第7章环境损害与资源之间的关系(所谓的环境库兹涅茨曲线)，以及第8章环境税。这本书的第一部分提供了经验信息，以支持前面几章的理论探索。考虑了两个环境问题：气候变化和英国的硫磺排放。根据广泛的经验信息，第一章认为“至少到下个世纪中叶，稳定气候的成本效益战略是可行的，而且成本很低”(第281页)。同样，第二章认为，英国在20世纪80年代和90年代削减了硫排放，但成本很低，对经济产生了相当大的好处。这本书在引言和结论中提出了大量(近400页长)的经济论点，支持将更多的权重放在环境可持续性上的政策。有许多特点使它成为一本非常有用的书。令人振奋的是，这份经济分析并不是建立在我认为是错误的前提上，即将货币价值放在环境中是否合适。随之而来的关于可持续性应该通过一系列指标来衡量的建议--而不是任何单一的绝对指标--将赢得许多环保主义者的同情。讨论在理论理解和流行概念之间提供了许多有用的联系：对于考试-
How do you ght for what you believe in? These two books both argue strongly for radical reform in government policies to achieve sustainability development. One, however, is a closely argued economic textbook and the other is a polemic presenting a wide-ranging and more populist agenda for reform. They may subscribe to the same ideals, but they are poles apart when it comes to the language of their argument, and the nature of their anticipated audiences. In Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability Paul Ekins chooses to address sustainability through a framework of conventional academic economics. As he explains, “the book is an investigation of the relationship between environmental sustainability, economic growth and human welfare, with an emphasis on the rst two” (p. 1). It achieves its goal through a carefully argued theoretical and empirical discussion examining issues around the interaction between the environment and economic growth. Its essential argument is that economic growth can be achieved with environmental sustainability. Ekins’s rst three chapters de ne his terms and provide the background for his argument. They provide useful essays in themselves, addressing, in turn, developing economic arguments about environmental scarcity, the meaning and nature of economic growth and the meaning of environmental sustainability. In chapter 3, crucially, ‘environmental sustainability’ is taken out of discussions about the valuation of ‘natural capital’, and de ned as the maintenance of important environmental functions. The middle section of the book considers particular economic issues that have arisen in relation to the environment. Chapter 5 thus addresses how the environment should be treated in national accounts, chapter 6, the links to population, af uence and technology, chapter 7, the relationship between environmental damage and af uence (the so-called, Environmental Kuznets Curve), and chapter 8, environmental taxation. The nal section of the book provides empirical information to back up the theoretical explorations of the earlier chapters. Two environmental issues are considered: climate change and UK sulphur emissions. Drawing on a wide range of empirical information, the rst chapter argues that “to the middle of the next century at least, a cost-effective strategy to stabilise the climate is feasible, and will cost little, if anything” (p. 281). Similarly, the second chapter argues that UK sulphur emissions were cut in the 1980s and 1990s at little cost and considerable bene t to the economy. With its introduction and conclusion, this book makes a substantial (almost 400 pages long) economic argument in favour of policies placing greater weight on environmental sustainability. There are many features that make this an immensely useful book. It is heartening to nd an economic analysis that does not begin on what I consider to be false premises about the appropriateness of placing monetary values on the environment. The consequent suggestion that sustainability should be measured through a range of indicators—rather than any single absolute index—will nd sympathy with many environmentalists. The discussion provides many useful linkages between theoretical understanding and popular concepts: for exam-