Resumo
O principal propósito desta tese é apresentar uma discussão teórica sobre a influência de diferentes teorias económicas sobre o conceito e estratégias para atingir o desenvolvimento sustentável. São apresentadas diferentes perspetivas sobre a sustentabilidade do processo de crescimento económico. Explora-se a perda da análise ética no decorrer da história do pensamento económico e as suas implicações para o desenvolvimento sustentável. Na esfera económica do desenvolvimento sustentável, são salientadas as relações entre as teorias de dependência internacional e teorias liberais com os pensamentos económicos de Karl Marx e Adam Smith/David Ricardo, respetivamente. Analisa-se a compatibilidade entre as esferas económica e social do desenvolvimento sustentável, focando a questão da distribuição do rendimento entre indivíduos. Na esfera social do desenvolvimento sustentável, é apresentada a teoria de desenvolvimento de Amartya Sen remetendo-nos para a conceção clássica do sistema económico. Debate-se duas versões da economia como ciência social: a teoria económica neoclássica defendendo que todos os bens são escassos, levando à trivialização do problema de escassez dos recursos naturais; a teoria económica clássica defendendo que o sistema económico produz um excedente, salientando a importância de estudar a gestão dos recursos naturais. Na esfera ambiental do desenvolvimento sustentável discute-se duas correntes opostas: economia dos recursos/ambiental e economia ecológica. Estas duas correntes trazem-nos diferentes versões de sustentabilidade: fraca e forte, respetivamente relacionadas com a teoria económica neoclássica e teoria económica clássica.
Palavras-chave: Desenvolvimento Sustentável; Sustentabilidade; Teorias Económicas; Economia.
Abstract
The main purpose of this thesis is to present a theoretical discussion about the influence of different economic theories on the concept and strategies to achieve sustainable development. It presents different perspectives on the sustainability of the economic growth process. It explores the loss of ethical analysis along the history of economic thought and its implications to sustainable development. Under the economical sphere of sustainable development, it highlights the relations between the theories of international dependence and liberal theories of economic development with the economic thoughts of Karl Marx and Adam Smith/David Ricardo, respectively. There is an analysis over the compatibility between the economic and social spheres of sustainable development with a focus on the distribution of income among individuals. Under the social sphere of sustainable development, it presents the capability approach of Amartya Sen bringing back the classical conception of the economic system. It explores two versions of economics as a social science: neoclassical economic theory defending that all goods are scarce leading to the trivialization of the scarcity problem of natural resources; classical economic theory defending that the economic system produces a surplus enhancing the importance of studying the management of natural resources. Under the environmental sphere of sustainable development, there is a discussion of two opposing currents: resource/environmental economics and ecological economics. These two currents bring us different versions of sustainability: weak and strong, with a connection to neoclassical economic theory and classical economic theory, respectively.
Keywords: Sustainable Development; Sustainability; Economic Theories; Economics.
Table of Contents
Introduction
In this thesis, we will explore the history of economic thought and relate it with the three dimensions of sustainable development (environmental, economical and social). The concept of sustainable development emerged in the 18th century, in the context of forest economics (Figuières, Guyomard, & Rottilon, 2010). The world has been developing a large concern over the achievement of sustainable development, and there are documents that prove this fact (Pezzey, 1992). In 2015, the Agenda of 2030 for Sustainable Development was launched (United Nations, 2015). The world is now working toward 17 objectives defined and agreed by world leaders.
There is a clear influence of economic theory on the interpretations made of sustainability and sustainable development. There are several economic theories developed by a large number of economists (Hunt, & Lautzenheiser, 2011). In this sense, economics is a social science which was defined by a large number of authors in various ways. The definition of this concept helps us to comprehend the problems analyzed and the methods used, including their approaches and techniques (Backhouse, & Medema, 2009). One of the matters that economics deals with is sustainability and sustainable development.
Considering this, the relations between the different economic theories developed along the history of the economic thought and the concept of sustainable development, as well as the strategies to achieve it, are a matter of academic interest for the scientific community nowadays. Having this as a background, our research question is: "How do economic theories influence the concept of sustainable development and the strategies used to achieve it?"
Chapter 1
Literature Review: introduction to the main concepts.
This thesis will address the connections between economic theories and the concept of sustainable development. So, the first step is to explore the two main concepts: economics and sustainable development.
Several economists developed several economic theories in thousands of books (Hunt, & Lautzenheiser, 2011). In this sense, economics is a social science which was defined by a large number of authors in various ways. The definition of economics helps us to understand the problems analyzed, the methods used, their approaches and techniques, or in other words, the economic theories developed (Backhouse, & Medema, 2009). But due to dealing with a vast matter of subjects, defining economics in few words is not easy.
We will see three definitions of the concept under analysis. The first one we shall address is the definition of Adam Smith, because he was considered the father of economics and the first author of the classical school (Fonseca, n.d.-a). Adam Smith sees the economic system as a product of labor and its organization, which is implicit in the division of labor (Smith, 2007). He defends that the labor of each country generates its wealth. He studied the process of production of wealth, as well as its distribution. More specifically, Adam Smith studied the wealth of different countries, and the policies that could create wealth (Backhouse, & Medema, 2009).
The second definition of economics that we will explore is from Alfred Marshall because he was one of the main authors within neoclassical economics (Fonseca, n.d.-b). In fact, the term neoclassical economics was first used by Thorstein Veblen (1900) in order to denote Marshall’s economics, and Marshall’s Principle of Economics became the canonical textbook through which neoclassical economics was taught. Alfred Marshall sees economics as the study of men’s action on the business life and the reasons behind its actions (Marshall, 1920). Marshall defends that each man brings its own interests to the scene and their interests can be selfish or unselfish. However, the main motive to work is the payment you receive as exchange. Marshall sees how economics leads to an opening for exact methods because the strength of a person's motives can be measured by the quantity of money he is able to pay to secure a desired satisfaction. Marshall clarifies that what economics is able to measure is the manifestation of desires and intentions using money as a unit of measurement. Human action is not studied in isolation but in relation to a social group. But Marshall was one of the authors that brought the individualistic element to the definition of economics because he felt that psychology was a requirement to understand economic matters (Backhouse, & Medema, 2009).
Finally, we will cover Lionel Robbins' economics definition, because it is the most accepted definition of our object of study in our days (Backhouse, & Medema, 2009). According to this Robbins, economics is “the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses" (Robbins, 1932). In other words, it studies the choices that individuals have to do with their scarce resources to achieve one of the several ends they desire. Robbins' definition of economics is a reflection of the evolution of the marginal microeconomic analysis and of focusing on individual behavior (Backhouse, & Medema, 2009). With these three definitions, we can see: how economists disagree about the definition of the subject; how hard it is do define economics in few words; how a definition gives us insights on how these authors understand and study economics.
We will not choose any definition of economics, because they are a way to justify its practice, the directions taken, and influence its practice (Backhouse, & Medema, 2009). Instead, we will try to relate the definitions of economics and the economic theories developed by different economists to the concept of sustainable development and to ways to achieve it. That is, we shall critically scrutinize the implications of each definition of economics, rather than simply accepting one to the exclusion of others.
Let us turn now to the concept of sustainable development. It appeared for the first time in the context of forest economics, at the 18th century (Figuières, Guyomard, & Rottilon, 2010). However, it only focused on the optimum management of a renewable resource. Afterwards, with Malthus and Ricardo, at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, there was the first economic overview formulated to study and understand how the scarcity of a natural resource, agricultural land, could set a limit to economic and population growth, as well as to a rise in living standards.
Sustainable development has been in the center of attentions of many world leaders and there are some documents that prove it (Pezzey, 1992). One of them is the Brutland Report of 1987, denominated "Our Common Future". In this report, the general accepted definition of sustainable development appeared: meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). This report recognizes the importance of everyone's work toward defined common objectives and with specific strategies to follow. In this sense, a common understanding of the concept of sustainable development and the best way to achieve it is mandatory.
The definition of the Brutland Report is the one that we will follow on this thesis. We will follow this one because: it is the one generally accepted, it emerges from one of the more acknowledged reports written about the matter, and finally, it does not go against any of the common features identified regarding the subject, as well as the areas it involves. This definition has in it two important concepts: the concept of needs (in order to give priority to the needs of the poor) and the concept of limitations (there are limitations on the environment and organization of the society to meet present and future needs) (Pearce, 2002). As we will see, not everyone agrees with the limitations of the environment and organization of the society to sustain and guarantee the fulfillment of human needs.
Chapter 2
Literature Review: history of economic thought.
In this chapter of the literature review, there are brief descriptions of some economic theories developed by important economists: Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall and Robert Solow. This summary will be further used to relate economic theories and economic currents with the concept and ways to achieve sustainable development. We are only focusing on the authors and matters that we can further relate with sustainable development, and even these are only briefly described. It is important to remember that a main part of this thesis is to relate economic theories with the concept and ways to achieve sustainable development, not to make a complete description of the evolution of economic thought through the centuries.
Afterwards, we will cover the loss of the ethical analyses over the history of economic thought. This topic is relevant to address the concept and strategies to achieve sustainable development because there are ethical values and concepts inherent to the understanding of sustainable development. These values and concepts need to be analyzed, understood and respected by the humanity so that together we strive to achieve sustainable development.
1 Adam Smith.
Adam Smith was born in the XVIII century, Scotland, and is nowadays regarded as the father of economics and the first author of the classical school (Fonseca, n.d.-a). Smith explained how individuals act in market interactions having as their basic motivation their self-interest (Heilbroner, 1999). This basic motivation is controlled by the competition levels of the markets. Then, through the interaction between individuals, social harmony can be achieved.
Smith pointed that humans are able to feel each other's feelings through their imagination (Smith, 1790). We do this by putting us in the situations that others face. Adam Smith called this capacity sympathy. Besides this, Smith defended that humans are worried with justice, fairness and altruism (Ashraf, Camerer, Colin, & Loewenstein, 2005). These factors are crucial in market interactions: they make humans trust in each other, enable them to repeat transactions and to have material gains.
Smith identified two forces that explain the increases of productivity inherent in the market system (Heilbroner, 1999). The first one is the accumulation of capital or in other words the accumulation of savings. The second one is the law of population The accumulation of savings or capital enables the division of labor and this leads to an increase in productivity (Heilbroner, 1999; Smith, 2007). However, the division of labor is not a decision made to have gains of productivity, it happens due to our propensity to negotiate and exchange things (Smith, 2007). The gains of productivity are limited by the law of population (Heilbroner, 1999). According to Smith, the first effect of accumulating capital and investing it is a raise in wages. This raise in wages leads to an increase of the working force. This increase in the number of workers will pressure wages down, leading to a decrease in the number of workers.
Smith defends that the extent to which there can be increases of productivity due to the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market (Smith, 2007). In small markets, for example a village, a man cannot become specialized in one function or employment because he will not have the opportunity to find someone specialized in the other things that he needs and exchange with him to finish a work. So, in small markets, people end up doing a lot of things leaving no room to specialization or to the division of labor.
An essential condition to the division of labor is high levels of production (Martins, 2009). Only then, the division of labor enables an increase in productivity. Smith believed that the economic growth process can be a sustainable positive cycle. He defended that when we increase productivity levels, we are able to have profits. These profits will create savings. These savings will be applied in capital, leaving an opening to a new division of labor and to attain higher productivity levels.
2 Jean-Baptiste Say.
Adam Smith’s ideas were popularized in France by Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist born in Lyons typically associated with Say's Law (Liberty Fund
Inc., 2008b). Say based his law on two propositions: the desire for goods and purchasing power are endless (Heilbroner, 1999). Say's law follows Adam Smith's thinking and states that supply or production generates its own demand (Martins, 2009). The activity of production always costs something, and this cost always generates incomes to people, independently of it being a wage, a rent or a profit (Heilbroner, 1999; Martins, 2009). These incomes are then used in consumption. The act of consuming, is the demand which is never satiated. Say defended that, both in the long-run and in the short-run, overproduction of goods is not possible because by producing goods the purchasing power to buy other goods is produced (Liberty Fund Inc., 2008b). Say also defended that economic growth process can be a sustainable positive cycle, as well as Adam Smith (Martins, 2009). Other followers and interpreters of Smith, such as David Ricardo and Thomas Robert Malthus, were less optimistic on this possibility.
3 David Ricardo.
David Ricardo was a British economist who formulated the more systematic version of the classical system of political economy and dominated economic thinking in the 19th century, creating the classical or "Ricardian school" (Fonseca, n.d.-b). Ricardo saw people as members of a social class, who follow laws of behavior driven only by economic motivations (Heilbroner, 1999). There are three important social classes: workers, capitalists and landlords. To Ricardo, workers receive wages to compensate their work, and every time there is an increase in their wages, there is an increase in population. This makes them live at the margin of subsistence, with wages at their natural level, which they use to satisfy their necessities (Fonseca, n.d.-b). He defended the labor-embodied theory of value where the relative natural prices of commodities are given by the relative hours employed in their production. Capitalists live to gain profits and save them to further on hire more workers, or in other words, to reinvest it (Fonseca, n.d.-b; Heilbroner, 1999). Landlords receive rent to pay back the fertility of the soil (Heilbroner, 1999). Rent exists to compensate the different productivity levels of land. Keeping everything else equal, higher fertility levels of soil enable higher production levels which decrease the cost of production per unit. The different costs of production enable the existence of rent. Landlords use their rents to buy luxuries (Fonseca, n.d.-b).
Now let us see how these three social classes interact and the subsequent results (Heilbroner, 1999). When capitalists accumulate, they invest in economic activity which increases the demand for labor. Higher demand for any product leads to an increase in the number of workers, so their wages increase. As wages increase, there is an increase in population or workers. More people implies higher demand levels of food or agricultural products, which increases the demand for fields. This factor leads to the use of less productive land. The use of less productive land will increase the cost of production. This will increase the prices, the wages and the rents of productive soils, considering that it is the difference between the productivity levels that leads to the existence of rents. In the end, the capitalists have to pay higher wages and receive smaller profits. The workers live at subsistence levels. The landlords are the only ones better of considering that the rents of good lands are higher and the worse lands are now into use. To David Ricardo, profit and rent levels are determined in the agricultural sector (Fonseca, n.d.-b).
To Ricardo, there is a limit to economic growth (Martins, 2009). Ricardo believes that soils have a decreasing productivity, which leads to lower productivity levels. With lower productivity levels, profits will also decrease. Investments will be then directed to industrial and manufacturer activity, which will decrease the profits in all these activities due to competition. Considering that there will be no profits in these activities, there will not be any savings to accumulate capital, and there will not be economic growth. For Ricardo, economic growth is not a sustainable process in the long run because profits will disappear due to rents and wages, leading the economy to a stationary state where capitalists will not make profits and there will not be any savings/accumulation (Fonseca, n.d.-b). Thomas Robert Malthus, like David Ricardo, did not believe in the sustainability of the economic growth process, however with a different reasoning, as we will see.
4 Thomas Robert Malthus.
Malthus was born in the south of London and studied what happened to populations (Fonseca, n.d.-f; Liberty Fund Inc., 2008c). More specifically, Malthus studied individual responses to economic incentives and was known for defending that population growth was higher than food production growth (Fonseca, n.d.-f; Heilbroner, 1999; Liberty Fund Inc., 2008c). According to Malthus, population grows at a geometrical rate higher than food production which increases at an arithmetical growth rate (Liberty Fund Inc., 2008c). This factor made humans live on subsistence levels (Fonseca, n.d.-f; Heilbroner, 1999; Liberty Fund Inc., 2008c; Martins, 2009). They are kept at this level mainly by population growth control and only to a certain point through increases in the food supply (Heilbroner, 1999; Liberty Fund Inc., 2008c). It is possible to increase food supply but only through difficult methods (Liberty Fund Inc., 2008c). However, people can easily control population growth by using contraceptives, marrying late, between others measures more dramatic. An empirical prove is the measures applied by China, Mexico and India over the last years (Heilbroner, 1999). Considering the tendency described above, measures of charity focused on increasing the income of the lower classes, until a certain level, would have no result because population will grow leading people to live at subsistence levels again (Fonseca, n.d.-f; Heilbroner, 1999).
Malthus suggested that it was possible to solve this problem, to reduce the population growth rate to a point where the tendency to live under subsistence levels did not apply, with the introduction of the hypothesis moral constraint (Fonseca, n.d.-f). This consisted on a voluntary abstinence that could be reached by stimulating the poor to change their behaviors. He went further and suggested that by increasing incomes to sufficient high levels, poor people would reach high levels of quality of life and they would look up for it before starting a family, reducing the population growth.
Now turning to the matter of the origins of rent. Malthus differed from Ricardo’s perspective. For Malthus rent brings an incentive for the landlord to improve land, and is a deduction from the surplus that exists because: agricultural activity produces a surplus, the price of corn is constantly above the cost of production due to the wage-fertility dynamics, and finally, productive lands are scarce (Fonseca, n.d.-f).
Malthus defended that economic growth is not a sustainable process on the long run, like David Ricardo (Martins, 2009). For Malthus, the population growth rate is higher than the economic growth rate, which leads to a reduction of the economic growth per capita. Since the wages are kept at the subsistence levels and they are crucial to consumption levels (the propensity to consume is higher to people that receive wages than to people who receive profits), we will have low demand levels leading to production and consumption crisis. He did not believe in Say's law and defended that there could be excess of production or excess of demand (Martins, 2009). In this sense, economic growth can stop. The next author under analyses, John Stuart Mill, brings us a different perspective where the focus of our attention should not be on economic growth, but on the distribution of wealth.
5 John Stuart Mill.
John Stuart Mill was a British classical economist (Fonseca, n.d.-d). He followed his father, James Mill, known as an Ricardian economist. Besides this, Mill was a philosopher who defended the theory of utility. According to this theory, the term utility refers to pleasure and absence of pain, or in other words, to happiness (Mill, 2001). Utility is the end desire of humans. People desire a lot of things but they only desire what gives them or have inherently in them the end desire of humans, happiness. Utilitarianism defends that actions are right if they lead to happiness and wrong if they lead to the contrary of happiness. In this theory, there is a focus on the consequences of people's actions and its contribution to the achievement of the end desire of humans.
In Mill's most famous book on economics, Principles of Political Economy, the topics covered are rents, wages, prices and taxes, just like his antecessors Smith, Ricardo and Malthus (Heilbroner, 1999). Mill defends that production is subject to economic laws and it is completely separated from distribution. The activity of production is conditioned by the scarcity of nature and depends on technology (Heilbroner, 1999; Martins, 2009). The economic choices made to maximize the productivity of labor are impersonal and absolute. It is a fact that they have to deal with the scarcity of nature and are conditioned by the technology available. With production , individuals create wealth (Heilbroner, 1999). Then, society determines the distribution of wealth through its laws and customs, or in other words, through its social institutions (Heilbroner, 1999; Martins, 2009). These laws and customs are created by a portion of the society that rules (Heilbroner, 1999). Distribution is based on ruler's ideas and feelings. In this sense, distribution changes from country to country and from time to time, with no boundaries. This perspective empowers the rulers of societies. If societies are unhappy with a certain situation, their rulers can simply change the distribution of wealth in order to improve the wellbeing of societies as a whole.
To Mill, economic growth is not a problem because technology enables societies to produce enough quantities of goods (Martins, 2009). The focus of our attention should be on how to improve the distribution of wealth through different social institutions. Mill had a very important influence on Alfred Marshall, who became the most influential British economist after Mill.
6 Alfred Marshall.
Alfred Marshall was born in 1842 and was a leading economist of neoclassical economics (Fonseca, n.d.-a). Marshall sees economics as the study of human action in the sense that it affects the material conditions of welfare (Marshall, 1920). This is a substantive conception where the economy is defined in a object of analysis, the human actions. Marshall’s work tries to explain an empirical reality using mathematics (in footnotes and appendices) but always trying to keep all aspects of real life he can in its conception. As we will see, economics will deviate from the study of an empirical reality with the marginal revolution.
Alfred Marshall is known by his theory of market equilibrium where there is a combination of the classical and marginal analysis (Heilbroner, 1999). Marshall recognizes a crucial element in the equilibrium theory: time, and because of that, he separates the equilibrium analysis in the short-run and in the long-run (Heilbroner, 1999). Marshall defends that supply and demand determine the quantities and prices of goods exchanged, in the short run, and that to know them, we need to know the supply and demand of the goods. In the short-run, the quantities of goods are fixed and their prices are determined by the present demand over the goods or using other words, by the subjective preferences and marginal utility. In the short-run, we are under a context of scarcity where it is not possible to increase or decrease the supply of goods even if the demand increases or decreases (Heilbroner, 1999). In the short run, we have a clear presence of the marginal analysis. On the long run, the quantities of goods are not fixed since we are not under a context of scarcity and we are able to increase or decrease the supply of goods. Having this as background, on the long run, the prices of goods tend to its cost of production, as it was defended by classical authors (Heilbroner, 1999).
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