Welfare Measurement, Sustainability and Green National Accounting

One of the basic issues of accounting is to augment, or extend the conventional net national product measure so as to obtain a better indicator of welfare. This book extends the usual analysis of social accounting by including technological change, externalities and uncertainty.

This important new book analyses welfare measurement, sustainability and 'green accounting' within general equilibrium models. A large part of the book is devoted to welfare measurement in the presence of technological change and external effects which complicate 'green accounting' to a considerable extent. In addition to environmental externalities, the authors also discuss external effects arising from investments in human capital and their implications for welfare measurement. Other areas examined are welfare measurement under uncertainty and examples of cost-benefit analyses of environmental and other policies.

The book will be required reading for graduate students and professional economists interested in macroeconomics, environmental and resource economics.