Environment and Employment: A Reconciliation

ISBN-13: 9780415539876 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 416 str.

Philip Lawn

Opis

Mounting evidence suggests that GDP growth is damaging the natural environment and unlikely to be ecologically sustainable in the long-run. At the same time, an annual GDP growth rate of around three percent is regarded as the minimum necessary to prevent unemployment from escalating. Clearly, a trade-off exists between environmental goals and employment goals, yet this trade-off has been largely ignored or denied. This book aims to resolve the environment-employment dilemma by suggesting ways and means to achieve low rates of unemployment, or preferably full employment, in the context of a low-growth or steady-state economy. In search of a solution to this dilemma, this book seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What existing paradigms offer a possible foundation for further investigation into issues dealing with both the environment and employment?

1. What specific initiatives can be implemented to deal with unemployment given that any potential solution must be consistent with responsible macroeconomic policy?

1. To what extent can ecological tax reform provide a solution to the environment-employment dilemma?

1. Under what circumstances is it clear that certain forms of employment generation are antithetic to the goal of ecological sustainability?

1. How can more favourable employment-generating opportunities be exploited in ways which lower unemployment or achieve full employment without the need for ecologically-destructive GDP growth?

This book will no doubt stimulate a broader discussion on the issue, and it may just begin a process that leads to the eventual emergence of a viable policy strategy to generate a sustainable, full employment future. This book will be of interest to decision-makers, civil servants, researchers, and NGO employees as well as students of environmental and ecological economics and issues related to employment and unemployment.

Spis treści

PART I: AN INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENT AND EMPLOYMENT

Chapter 1: Why focus on the connection between the environment and employment?

Philip Lawn

Chapter 2: The potential conflict between ecological sustainability and full employment

Philip Lawn

PART II: POST-KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Chapter 3: Why have Post-Keynesians (perhaps) inadequately dealt with issues related to the environment?

Andrew Mearman

Chapter 4: Recovering and extending classical and Marshallian foundations for Post-Keynesian environmental economics

Paul Christensen

Chapter 5: Post-Keynesian economics and sustainable development

Richard Holt

 

PART III: GUARANTEED EMPLOYMENT VERSUS GUARANTEED INCOME

Chapter 6: The Basic Income Guarantee and the goals of equity, efficiency, and environmentalism

Karl Widerquist and Michael Lewis

Chapter 7: Evaluating the economic and environmental viability of Basic Income and Job Guarantees

Pavlina Tcherneva

Chapter 8: A comparison of the macroeconomic consequences of Basic Income and Job Guarantee schemes

William Mitchell and Martin Watts

PART IV: ECOLOGICAL TAX REFORM AND THE DOUBLE DIVIDEND

Chapter 9: An applied general equilibrium analysis of a double dividend policy for the Spanish economy

Antonio Manresa and Ferran Sancho

Chapter 10: An empirical assessment of ecological tax reform and the double dividend

Philip Lawn

PART V: JOBS VERSUS THE ENVIRONMENT

Chapter 11: A city that works – employment patterns and ecosystem service requirements in greater Christchurch, New Zealand

Nigel Jollands, Nancy Golubiewski, and Garry McDonald

Chapter 12: Employment and environment in a sustainable Europe

Freiderich Hinterberger, Ines Omann, and Andrea Stocker

Chapter 13: Managing without growth

Peter Victor and Gideon Rosenbluth

PART VI: CONCLUSION

Chapter 14: Final thoughts on reconciling the goals of ecological sustainability and full employment

Philip Lawn

O autorze

Philip Lawn is a Senior Lecturer in ecological economics at Flinders University, Australia. His work includes six books, numerous book chapters, and nearly fifty journal articles. His more recent book, co-edited with Matthew Clarke, focuses on sustainable welfare in the Asia-Pacific region.