scholarly journals The Paradoxical Malthusian. A Promethean Perspective on Vaclav Smil’s Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities (MIT Press, 2019) and Energy and Civilization: A History (MIT Press, 2017)

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5306
Author(s):  
Pierre Desrochers
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Environmental Remediation ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
Value Judgements ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Prolific energy writer Vaclav Smil’s “Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities” (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2019) is marketed as the most comprehensive study of the modalities of growth in Earth’s life systems in their many natural, social, and technological forms. While the book reflects Smil’s strength as a polymath, it also brings into focus his Malthusian outlook. Smil’s Malthusianism is puzzling in light of much empirical evidence to the contrary and of his own detailed histories of human technological achievements, including his recent massive synthesis “Energy and Civilization: A History” (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2017). In keeping with Smil’s historical emphasis, in this review essay, the Malthusian assumptions, assertions, and conclusions of these books are challenged through the Promethean insights of numerous writers whose output long predates the modern environmental movement and can thus avoid charges of “greenwashing”. I make a case that, in the context of market economies (i.e., competition, price system, and private property rights), humans’ unique propensity to trade physical goods and to (re)combine things in new ways have long delivered both improved standards of living and environmental remediation. I further suggest that it is not the volume of materials handled, but rather how they are handled that determines the impact of economic growth on the biosphere. While Professor Smil is fond of saying that “numbers don’t lie”, his work illustrates that they are sometimes made to tell an unduly pessimistic story through the intellectual filters created by an author’s assumptions and value judgements.

scholarly journals Institutions and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African Countries: The Effect of Investment Climate Quality

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (04) ◽  
pp. 1706-1730
Author(s):  
Nyemb Pagbe Rémi Degourmond
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Composite Index ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Composite Indices ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

This paper assesses the impact of investment climate quality on economic growth for a sample of 21 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), over the period 1996-2014. The investment climate is measured simultaneously by individual components and composite indices, in order to capture both its global and specific effects, with a view to possibly identifying the most determining factors in the economic growth of SSA countries. In addition, in order to verify the robustness of our results, two composite indices of investment climate were constructed using the Principal Component Analysis method, with variables from two main databases (the World Governance Indicators database of World Bank and the International Country Risk Guide database).By using fixed and random effects models based on Hausman test results, we generally find that investment climate is a major determinant of economic growth in the countries of the SSA of the study sample. This result is valid regardless of the composite index or the individual component considered. Fight against corruption, protection of private property rights, efficiency of government, the quality of bureaucracy and regulation appear to be the most decisive components in accelerating economic growth for the sample of country considered.

Commerce and Culture in the Global Economy

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
William A. Garden ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Global Culture ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
Growth Increase ◽  
Political Challenge

Increasing globalization in the form of greater international trade and immigration has both costs and benefits. Market institutims and secure private property rights are conducive to higher economic growth, but some point out that higher growth must be weighed against alleged social instability and, perhaps, cultural degeneration. However, globalization may increase stability and cultural output. Polling data suggest that antitrade, anti-migration views pose a political challenge to economic and cultural exchange. People are skeptical of the rapidity of change coming with globalization, which leads to backlashes that slow the process. Negative effects of globaltation include increases in prostitution, for example, and perceived alienation from the global culture There are tensions between economic change arul cultural vibrancy. Nonetheless, greater international integration and accompanying economic growth increase cultural diversity.

Unbundling Institutions: Using Economic Analysis to Understand the Importance of Institutions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Scriven
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Government ◽  
Douglass North ◽  
Policy Arena

A large literature on institutions has developed that claims that institutions influence long-run growth and development; thus, it becomes critical to carefully examine what institutions influence which outcomes to better understand factors that influence long-run economic growth across countries. Douglass North terms institutions as the rules of the game and this paper will work to further examine these rules by looking at private property rights institutions, which are the rules and regulation protecting citizens against the power of the government and elites , and contracting institutions, which are the rules and regulations governing contracts between ordinary citizens. The paper Unbundling Institutions , published in the Journal of Political Economy by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson in 2005, seeks to conceptualize the different factors within the institutional framework and provide some semblance of which of these factors provide the most relevant analysis. The paper finds that property rights institutions have a strong influence on long-run economic growth, investment, and financial development, while contracting institutions have a more limited impact on those same factors. My presentation will give a concise background on the development of the new institutional approach and explain the reasoning for the conceptual divide between property rights and contracting institutions. Using a two-stage least squares regression (2SLS) approach and the instrumental variable approach, the presentation will address issues of causality and correlation. Identifying the link to the policy arena will provide context as to why this area is of particular importance.

Property Systems and Environmental Regulation

2019 ◽  
pp. 702-718
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Rodgers
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Property Holding ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the impact of property rights on environmental regulation. It first considers a range of property paradigms and how they relate to environmental law, including entitlements-based models of property and resource allocation models of property, before turning to ‘public’ and ‘private’ conceptions of property. It takes note of the fact that environmental protection is a ‘public’ or communal interest, but assimilating public interest objectives into systems of property law based on notions of private right has been problematic, especially for Western systems. The chapter also analyses the interactions between ‘public’ interest and ‘private’ property rights; the role of customary law and cultural norms in the organization of property holding and resource use, using the Maori case as example; and how property structures foster environmental stewardship.

Microfinance, entrepreneurship and institutional quality

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-148
Author(s):  
Malavika Nair ◽  
Martha Njolomole
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Institutional Quality ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Institutional Failure

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the success and failure of microfinance institutions in generating economic growth over the past 30 years and propose a dual criterion of evaluation. Design/methodology/approach It surveys the empirical literature on microfinance and finds that while there has been small and localized success in various countries in improving access to credit, at the same time there has been a broader failure to generate economic growth. The authors argue that this broader failure should be viewed from the viewpoint of institutional failure or the lack of supporting institutions such as private property rights and stable rule of law within developing countries. Findings Using Baumol’s (1968) theory of entrepreneurship, the authors argue that the broader failure of microfinance is a case of poor institutional quality leading to unproductive or even destructive entrepreneurship rather than productive entrepreneurship. The paper also suggests a link between the literature criticizing foreign aid and this view on microfinance. Originality/value The paper provides a survey of the empirical literature on micro finance as well as a novel framework that aids in understanding both the localized small-scale success as well as broader failure to generate economic growth.

Politics of Water Flows: Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Acevedo Guerrero
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
Market Environmentalism ◽  
The Impact

Since the late 20th century, water and sanitation management has been deeply influenced by ideas from economics, specifically by the doctrine of neoliberalism. The resulting set of policy trends are usually referred to as market environmentalism, which in broad terms encourages specific types of water reforms aiming to employ markets as allocation mechanisms, establish private-property rights and full-cost pricing, reduce (or remove) subsidies, and promote private sector management to reduce government interference and avoid the politicization of water and sanitation management. Market environmentalism sees water as a resource that should be efficiently managed through economic reforms. Instead of seeing water as an external resource to be managed, alternative approaches like political ecology see water as a socio-nature. This means that water is studied as a historical-geographical process in which society and nature are inseparable, mutually produced, and transformable. Political ecological analyses understand processes of environmental change as deeply interrelated to socioeconomic dynamics. They also emphasize the impact of environmental dynamics on social relations and take seriously the question of how the physical properties of water may be sources of unpredictability, unruliness, and resistance from human intentions. As an alternative to the hydrologic cycle, political ecology proposes the concept of hydrosocial cycle, which emphasizes that water is deeply political and social. An analysis of the politics of water flows, drawing from political ecology explores the different relationships and histories reflected in access to (and exclusion from) water supply, sanitation, and drainage. It portrays how power inequalities are at the heart of differentiated levels of access to infrastructure.

The Market Economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-138
Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Real World ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
The Right

The market economy can create trust for the right reasons. Markets and property rights promote social and political trust in the real world by creating social cohesion through exchange and generating economic growth. Markets also arise from private property rights, which are publicly justified based on the essential role private property rights play in protecting individual rights and the rights of associations. This includes private property rights in capital, that is, productive property, which means that a broadly market-based economy will be a central feature in any society that maintains high levels of social and political trust in the right ways.

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