Overview

In Human Well-Being and the Natural Environment, Partha Dasgupta explores ways to measure the quality of life. Although the problem pervades a number of academic disciplines, it is not confined to the academic realm. International organizations regularly publish cross-country estimates of the quality of life, journalists and commentators publicize them, and national governments are obliged to take note of them. Today, quality-of-life indices broker political arguments and together form a coin that even helps purchase economic and social policy.It is therefore ironic that indices of human well-being in current use are notably insensitive to our dependence on the natural environment, both at a moment in time and across generations. Moreover, international discussions on economic development in poor regions all too frequently ignore the natural resource base. In developing quality-of-life measures, Professor Dasgupta pays particular attention to the natural environment, illustrating how it can be incorporated, more generally, into economic reasoning in a seamless manner. The result is a treatise that goes beyond quality-of-life measures and offers a comprehensive account of the newly emergent subject of ecological economics. The connections between biodiversity, ecosystem services, resource scarcities, and economic possibilities for the future are developed in a quantitative, but accessible, language. Such familiar terms as 'sustainable development', 'social discount rates', and Earth's 'carrying capacity' are given a firm theoretical underpinning. The theory that is developed is then put to use in extended commentaries on the economics of population, poverty traps, global warming, structural adjustment programmes, and free trade. The author shows that, whether we are interested in valuing the state of affairs in a country or in evaluating economic policy there, the index that should be used is the economy's wealth, which is the social worth of its capital assets. The concept of wealth adopted here is a comprehensive one, including not only manufactured assets, but also human capital, knowledge, and the natural environment. Wealth is contrasted with such popular measures of human well-being as gross national product and the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index.Although the theory developed here is not restricted in its applicability to the circumstances facing poor countries, the exposition is prompted by the author's concerns over the dilemmas facing poor people in those parts of world. Repeatedly, he applies the theory to data on poor countries. The picture that emerges is a sobering one and contrasts sharply with that portrayed in the contemporary literature on economic development.The book has been written not only for fellow economists, but also for students of economics, environmental studies, political science, and political philosophy. It is intended even more broadly for the general citizen interested in human well-being and the centrality of the natural environment to our everyday lives.

Full Product Details

Author:   Partha Dasgupta (, University of Cambridge)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.30cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.001kg
ISBN:  

9780199247882

ISBN 10:   0199247889
Pages:   328
Publication Date:   15 November 2001
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Summary and Guide Introduction: Means and Ends I Valuing and EvaluatingPrologue 1: The Notion of Well-Being *1: Ordering Social States 2: Why Measure Well-Being? 3: Constituents and Determinants of Well-Being II Measuring Current Well-BeingPrologue 4: Theory 5: Current Quality of Life in Poor Countries III Measuring Well-Being over TimePrologue 6: Intergenerational Well-Being *6: Intergenerational Conflicts 7: Economic Institutions and the Natural Environment 8: Valuing Goods 9: Wealth and Well-Being IV Evaluating Policies in Imperfect EconomiesPrologue 10: Policy Reforms 11: Discounting Future Consumption: How and Why 12: Institutional Responses to Policy Change V Valuing Potential LivesPrologue 13: Some Views 14: Classical Utilitarianism and the Genesis Problem *14: Numbers and Well-Being under Classical Utilitarianism 15: Actual versus Potential Lives *15: Generation-Relative Utilitarianism Appendix

Reviews

Partha Dasgupta is a very highly regarded economic theorist, and this book shows why. Dasgupta writes more clearly, and in a more acessible manner than most highly regarded economic theorists ... this book has much to recommend it ... elegant and incisive analysis. Journal of Public Policy A very interesting and stimulating book. Journal of Economics Exemplary exposition of the environment's role in fostering socio-economic advance as part of human well-being ... enlightening from start to finish. Nature Building on his classic magnum opus ... Partha Dasgupta has joined this rethink in an intellectually rich, thought-provoking and occasionally metaphysical work. His new book probes many issues beyond those that might be anticipated from the title and confirms his position as one of the most exciting economic thinkers today ... we can ask why so many feel we need reforms in ethical behaviour to ensure sustainability. Dasgupta touches on some of the framework needed to answer this question. More is needed. If anyone is going to supply it is is likely to be Dasgupta. Times Higher Education Supplement Concepts like GDP focus on easily measurable things, whilst omitting ecosystem services and other environmental factors on which life ultimately depends. Partha Dasgupta is a seminal figure in his discipline, taking on the difficult, yet hugely important, task of trying meaningfully to measure quality of life . This book will, I hope, set the tone for the new millennium, melding conventional economic concepts, ecological and environmental science, and a great deal of plain commonsense. Read it. Lord Robert May, University of Oxford

Partha Dasgupta is a very highly regarded economic theorist, and this book shows why. Dasgupta writes more clearly, and in a more acessible manner than most highly regarded economic theorists ... this book has much to recommend it ... elegant and incisive analysis. Journal of Public Policy A very interesting and stimulating book. Journal of Economics Exemplary exposition of the environment's role in fostering socio-economic advance as part of human well-being ... enlightening from start to finish. Nature Building on his classic magnum opus ... Partha Dasgupta has joined this rethink in an intellectually rich, thought-provoking and occasionally metaphysical work. His new book probes many issues beyond those that might be anticipated from the title and confirms his position as one of the most exciting economic thinkers today ... we can ask why so many feel we need reforms in ethical behaviour to ensure sustainability. Dasgupta touches on some of the framework needed to answer this question. More is needed. If anyone is going to supply it is is likely to be Dasgupta. Times Higher Education Supplement Concepts like GDP focus on easily measurable things, whilst omitting ecosystem services and other environmental factors on which life ultimately depends. Partha Dasgupta is a seminal figure in his discipline, taking on the difficult, yet hugely important, task of trying meaningfully to measure quality of life . This book will, I hope, set the tone for the new millennium, melding conventional economic concepts, ecological and environmental science, and a great deal of plain commonsense. Read it. Lord Robert May, University of Oxford

Author Information

Partha Dasgupta is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. A Past President of the Royal Economic Society and of the European Economic Association, Professor Dasgupta is a Fellow of the British Academy, Member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. His publications include An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993).

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