The True Wealth of Nations

The Allianz magazine recently published this interview featuring IHDP's Scientific Committee Chair Sir Partha Dasgupta and the Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR).

Economics – and macro-economics in particular – is ecologically illiterate, Tim Jackson charged in his book Prosperity Without Growth (2009). That may be a harsh, sweeping statement, but it is one that Sir Partha Dasgupta, the Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Cambridge, agrees is justified.

“In long-term macro-economics, over periods of 30, 40 or even 100 years, there is no doubt that models should include nature as a productive asset, and yet mainstream economic models fail to do that,” Dasgupta comments. According to current economic production indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI), many nations are getting wealthier. But this raises the question: what is wealth?

11 January 2013 | Read more