Publications: Micro, meso and macro economics of dematerialisation

Abstract

The concept of dematerialisation was developed in the early 1990s for bridging environmental and economic aspects in a debate that was still facing conflicting views on the major societal policy goals. While on the policy level the triple bottom line approach has become a standard objective of SD, a coherent framework for analysis is still missing in the realm of economic theory. The public as well as academic researchers use common, standardised economic indicators (GDP and employment) as indications for economic and societal development.

The question posed here is how the concept of dematerialisation can be injected into standard micro and macroeconomic theory and thereby applied in various stages of economic research. As EU and other countries engage in data collection for this purpose, empirical work and policy evaluation will be the next possible step. The paper gives an overview of recent work on the economics of dematerialisation and provides motivation for future research.

Keywords

Dematerialisation, sustainable development, employment and environment, indicators, environmental integration

[...back]

download [ pdf 79 kB]