A framework for modelling economy-environment-development relationships based on dynamic carrying capacity and sustainable development feedback

A large literature exists that deals with economic issues of development and growth. It includes various approaches that can be classified as formal-theoretical, empirical-statistical and qualitative-verbal. Recently, the issue of sustainable development has been discussed much, which has given rise to some novel views on the relationship between development and environment. Most of these contributions utilize a more or less qualitative approach. A comprehensive inquiry of the relationship between economy, development, growth and environment may include an analytical approach as well. An analytical framework is proposed here for studies of environment-economy-development relationships that separates between economy, development, environment, and value system. A distinction is made between direct and indirect economy-environment interactions. To overcome disadvantages of assumptions of determinism in long term analysis a sustainable development feedback mechanism is proposed. It reflects anticipative behaviour to natural environmental changes in making long term decisions. This can be seen as a specific element of endogenous growth, namely one based on environmental factors. To illustrate the ideas a number of theoretical models are discussed that can be regarded as dynamic formal extensions of the concept of carrying capacity. Different cases include combinations of internal and external feedback mechanisms to an economy. The results demonstrate that in addition to behaviourial patterns that have been obtained by more complex studies other patterns may emerge.This study was supported by the Economic Research Foundation (Ecozoek), which resorts under the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (N.W.O.), project no. 450-230-007.This paper is based on reprocessed material from my Ph.D. dissertation. I am grateful to my thesis supervisors Peter Nijkamp and Hans Opschoor for comments at various stages in the research.     

Books received in 2004

Books received in 2004

Books received in 2004     

Contents Volume 17 2000

Volume Contents

Contents Volume 17 2000     

Subsidizing cooperative and noncooperative R&D in duopoly with spillovers

Comparing the effect on private R&D investments of allowing firms to cooperate in R&D with that of providing R&D subsidies reveals that in general the latter policy is more effective than the former in promoting R&D activity. Analyzing the implementation of both policies simultaneously reveals that subsidizing cooperative and noncooperative R&D leads to the same market outcome. The preferred R&D-stimulating policy is to subsidize optimally an agreement according to which firms only share the outcomes of their independent research.     

Books received in 2005

Books Received

Books received in 2005 Asterisks indicate books already reviewed or in process     

Table of Contents Volume 29 2002

Volume Contents

Table of Contents Volume 29 2002     

A Micro-Econometric Analysis of Determinants of Unsustainable Consumption in The Netherlands

Recently, much attention has been given to the notion of `sustainable consumption'. Whereas environmental economics traditionally has focused environmental policy analysis on producers, this new notion broadens the perspective to include environmental policies aimed at directly influencing consumer decisions regarding buying, using, and recycling products. This could suggest policies that link not only to price incentives, but also and especially to persuasive instruments, such as education and information provision. These policies might take into account certain characteristics of households, such as lifestyle and family size. This article presents a first econometric analysis of consumption in the context of environmental sustainability. Relationships between different types of household expenditures and a range of household characteristics are assessed, based on a large micro data set of households for the Netherlands. Use is made of various demand models and econometric techniques to adequately address theoretical and technical issues involved. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of the results for environmental policy directed at stimulating sustainable consumption.     

Employment growth and innovation at the firm level

We analyze the influence of innovation on growth rates of employment in 859 Dutch manufacturing firms over the period 1983–1988. Whereas the (growth of the) R&D intensity of firms has a slightly negative impact on employment, we find that firms with a high share of product-related R&D (as a proxi of R&D related to industrial activities in an early stage of the life cycle) experienced an above average growth of employment. The same holds for firms which directed their R&D towards information technology. Smaller firms have, ceteris paribus, substantially higher growth rates of employment than their larger counterparts. Against our expectations, R&D cooperation has no significant impact on employment growth. The same holds for activities in the fields of biotechnology and new materials.     

Nonparametric tests of collectively rational consumption behavior: An integer programming procedure

We present an IP-based nonparametric (revealed preference) testing procedure for rational consumption behavior in terms of a general collective model, which includes consumption externalities and public consumption. An empirical application to data drawn from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) demonstrates the practical usefulness of the procedure. Finally, we present extensions of the testing procedure to evaluate the goodness-of-fit (accounting for optimization error as well as measurement error) of the collective model subject to testing.     

An Eye for an Eye Will Make the Whole World Blind: Conflict Escalation into Workplace Bullying and the Role of Distributive Conflict Behavior

The current study investigated how work-related disagreements—coined as conflicts—relate to workplace bullying, from the perspective of the target as well as the perpetrator. We hypothesized a positive indirect association between task conflicts and bullying through relationship conflicts. This process accounted for both for targets and perpetrators of bullying. Targets are distinguished from perpetrators in our assumption that this indirect effect is boosted by distributive conflict behavior, being yielding for targets and forcing for perpetrators. Results in a large representative sample of the Flemish working population (N = 2,029) confirmed our hypotheses. Additionally, our study also revealed a direct effect from task conflicts to bullying in the analyses regarding the indirect as well as the conditional indirect effects. For perpetrators, both the indirect and direct relationships are moderated by forcing, underlining the importance of distributive conflict behavior particularly for the enactment of bullying behaviors.