Economic Growth and Sustainable Development

Economic growth, reflected in increases in national output per capita, makes possible an improved material standard of living. Sustainable development, popularly and concisely defined as ‘meeting the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs,’ directly addresses the utilization of natural resources, the state of the environment, and intergenerational equity.

Fundamental questions addressed in this textbook include:

• What causes economic growth?
• Why do some countries grow faster than others?
• What accounts for the extraordinary growth in the world’s population over the past two centuries?
• What are the current trends in population and will these trends continue?
• Are there limits to economic growth and population growth due to resource constraints and environmental thresholds?
• Is sustainable development compatible with economic growth?
• Can sustainable development be attained without addressing the extreme poverty that afflicts over a billion of the world’s population?

This interdisciplinary textbook uses a blend of formal models, empirical evidence, history and policy to provide a coherent and comprehensive treatment of economic growth and sustainable development.