Documents steady state economy 9 results

"Many ecological economists have called for a rapid transition to a low-growth and eventual steady-state economy. In response, a number of observers have questioned the capacity for a democratic-capitalist system to achieve such a goal. Others simply refute the suggestion that growth needs to be curtailed. It is argued in this paper that: (a) growth is eventually detrimental to human well-being and, as a consequence, a steady-state economy is a long-run necessity; (b) a steady-state economy can accommodate the requirements of a capitalist system; and (c) a would-be-government wishing to impose the macro constraints advocated by ecological economists to bring forth a steady-state economy is potentially electable. As such, there is no reason why a steady-state economy and a democratic–capitalist system should not thrive in each other's presence."

"Degrowth has evolved within a decade from an activist movement into a multi-disciplinary academic paradigm. However, an overview taking stock of the peer-refereed degrowth literature is yet missing. Here, we review 91 articles that were published between 2006 and 2015. We find that the academic degrowth discourse occupies a small but expanding niche at the intersection of social and applied environmental sciences. The discourse is shaped by authors from high-income, mainly Mediterranean, countries. Until 2012, articles largely constitute conceptual essays endorsed by normative claims. More recently, degrowth has branched out into modelling, empirical assessments, and the study of concrete implementations. Authors tend to agree in that economic growth cannot be sustained ad infinitum on a resource constraint planet and that degrowth requires far reaching societal change. Whether degrowth should be considered as a collectively consented choice or an environmentally-imposed inevitability constitutes a major debate among degrowth thinkers. We argue that the academic discourse could benefit from rigid hypotheses testing through input-output modelling, material flow analysis, life-cycle assessments, or social surveys. By analyzing the potentials for non-market value creation and identifying concrete well-being benefits, the degrowth discourse could receive wider public support and contribute to a paradigmatic change in the social sciences."

"Why doesn't the explosive growth of companies such as Facebook and Uber deliver more prosperity for everyone? How could things be different? In San Francisco in 2013 activists protesting against the gentrification of their city smashed the windows of a bus carrying Google employees to work. But these protests weren't just a question of the activists versus the Googlers, or even the 99 per cent versus the 1 per cent. Rather they were symptomatic of the true conflict of our age, between humanity as a whole and a digital economy in which boundless growth is valued above all else. In this groundbreaking book, Douglas Rushkoff - named one of the world's ten most influential thinkers by MIT - lays out a ground plan for a different economic and social future. Ranging from big data to the rise of robots, from the gig economy to the collapse of the eurozone, Rushkoff shows how we can combine the best of human nature with the best of modern technology to achieve a state of sustainable, distributed wealth. It's time the economy finally worked for the human beings it's supposed to serve. "Douglas Rushkoff is one of today's most incisive media theorists and a provocative critic of our digital economy. He's also fun to read". (Walter Isaacson, president and CEO, The Aspen Institute, and author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators). "If you don't know Rushkoff, you're not serious about figuring out what's going to happen next". (Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and Tribes)."

"In this important book Herman E. Daly lays bare the weaknesses of growth economics, and explains why, in contrast, a steady state economy is both necessary and desirable. Through the course of the book, Daly develops the basic concept and theory of a steady-state economy from the 1970s limits to growth debates. In doing so, he draws on work from the classical economists, through both conflicts and agreements with neo-classical and Keynesian economists, as well as recent debates on uneconomic growth. Editorial-style policy essays substantiate Daly's argument, and he provides specific application of steady-state economics to important current issues, including monetary reform, tax reform, international trade and population. The book also includes discussion and critique of ethical, as well as biophysical, presuppositions of growth. From Uneconomic Growth to a Steady-State Economy is essential reading for academics, students and researchers in the fields of ecological economics, environmental studies, economic development, resource economics and public policy."

"This paper examines the impact of downward wage rigidity (nominal and real) on optimal steady-state inflation. For this purpose, we extend the workhorse model of Erceg, Henderson and Levin (2000) by introducing asymmetric menu costs for wage setting. We estimate the key parameters by simulated method of moments, matching key features of the cross-sectional distribution of individual wage changes observed in the data. We look at five countries (the US, Germany, Portugal, Belgium and Finland). The calibrated heterogeneous agent models are then solved for different steady state rates of inflation to derive welfare implications. We find that, across the European countries considered, the optimal steady-state rate of inflation varies between zero and 2%. For the US, the results depend on the dataset used, with estimates of optimal inflation varying between 2% and 5%."