John L. R. Proops

Seeking sustainability discourses with Q methodology

Abstract This paper outlines the potential benefit of Q methodology for the study of environmental issues within ecological economics, based on research into LETS (Local Employment and Trading Systems) in the United Kingdom. Q methodology is a qualitative but statistical approach to enable the discovery of a variety of discourses concerning how individuals understand their behaviour, and how they understand the social and environmental worlds in which they live. Q methodology thus has the capacity to allow a more effective form of policy making and implementation process. The paper introduces some of the basic tenets of Q methodology, illustrates these with results drawn from the study mentioned above, and concludes by indicating the potential this methodology holds for ecological economics research.

The concept of joint production and ecological economics

Joint production is suggested as one of the conceptual foundations of ecological economics. The notion of joint production springs immediately from the application of thermodynamics, and has a long history in economic analysis. Considerations of joint production give rise to philosophical concerns relating to responsibility and knowledge. The concept of joint production is easily comprehensible, and is also constitutive and supportive of a range of concepts current in ecological economic thought.

Carbon-dioxide production by the UK economy : an input-output assessment

This paper reports the use of an input-output model to examine the production of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK. The model is based on the UK. Input-Output Tables for 1984 but at a higher level of aggregation. A description of the appropriate modifications to the basic input-output model is followed by an outline of the data used. Some preliminary results on CO2 emissions are reported, both in aggregate and disaggregated to 38 sectors, with intensities per unit total output and per unit of final demand. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possibility of using the model to explore the effect of varying the balance between fossil-fuel and other forms of electricity generation, and of changing the composition of final demand for goods and services.

The lifetime pollution implications of various types of electricity generation. An input-output analysis

This paper examines the UK economy wide, lifecycle implications of eight forms of electricity generations for the emission of three air pollutants, CO2, SO2 and NOx. The lifecycle of the generating stations is considered in three phases: construction, operation and decommissioning. The methodology used is input-output analysis, which allows the calculation of the total pollution effects, throughout the economy, of any economic activity. The comparison for each case is with ‘old coal’ technology, and the considered forms of electricity generation give substantial lifecycle emission reductions for all three types of pollutants. In each case, much the largest reduction is attributable to the operating phase

Ecological economics: Rationale and problem areas

Abstract This paper is concerned with the nature of ecological economics as an area of interdisciplinary study and with problem areas which need to be confronted. After reviewing some of the perceived aims of work in this area, some of the sources of stimulus for studying ecological economics are considered. The roles of theories of history and “utopias” for ecological economics are assessed. The notion of “paradigmatic images of the world” is then introduced and related to utopias and the way that these influence work in ecological economics. Finally, a series of practical, ethical and conceptual problem areas are outlined, which require further interdisciplinary study.

Modelling the energy-output ratio

Abstract The elasticity of energy use with respect to national output has been estimated by various methods with sometimes seemingly contradictory results. This study attempts to reconcile these various estimates by modelling the energy–output ratio and deriving the corresponding cross-section and time-series elasticities from this model.

Organisation and dissipation in economic systems

This paper examines physical aspects of economic activity, particularly the relationship between economic ‘organisation’ and energy use. The properties of general dissipative systems are explored and the possibility of such systems becoming more organized over time is examined with reference to the second law of thermodynamics and the ‘evolutionary arrow of time’. It is argued that if a physical viewpoint is taken, economies can be considered as self-organizing dissipative systems. Measures of organization and dissipation are proposed and empirical analysis indicates that organization and energy dissipation increase together for economic systems, and there is weaker evidence that energy ‘efficiency’ also increases with organization.

The (non-) economics of the nuclear fuel cycle: an historical and discourse analysis

Abstract The development of commercial nuclear power seems irrational. While the nature of the nuclear fuel cycle has been well known since the early days of nuclear power, the problem of disposing of nuclear waste has only recently become a central area of concern and research. Also, commercial nuclear power has probably never been truly economically competitive, as it has received large subsidies. It is argued that the rise of nuclear power can be understood through the use of discourse analysis, where the discourse of the modernising and interventionist state is well matched to the discourse of nuclear power, as offering control and modernity.

Economy-environment interactions in the long-run: a neo-Austrian approach

Abstract This paper describes a neo-Austrian approach to the long-run interactions between invention, innovation and technical progress on the one hand, and resource use and pollution on the other. This approach is used to construct a formal model which simulates output, capital accumulation, pollution emission, pollution abatement, etc., for a simple model economy. We begin by reviewing the role and conceptualisation of time in economic modelling. We then move on to outline neo-Austrian capital theory as an alternative to the conventional approach. We note the implications of the neo-Austrian approach for modelling resource use and pollution, and a simulation model is constructed embodying the neo-Austrian approach to the time structure of production. The two possible ways the model can be interpreted are then explored. Results from the simulation model are presented and assessed. Finally, plans for future work with this approach are described.

A Practical Sustainability Criterion When There is International Trade

“Sustainable development” was the subject of the World Commission on Environment and Development’s report Our Common Future (WCED 1987), and was the focus of the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. While defmitions abound (Pezzey, 1989), economic definitions have tended to focus on sustainable development as non-declining per capita well-being through time (Maler, 1991; Pearce et al., 1989). In itself, sustainable development is potentially inconsistent with a conventional cost-benefit approach to intertemporal resource use, since it denies any option whereby net benefits now can be sacrificed for greater net benefits in the future, and vice versa. Non-declining well-being becomes an intertemporal equity objective, rather than an efficiency objective.