Analysis of the Role of Green Accounting in Economic Development of Nations

Abstract

New questions in a changing economy demands development of both contemporary and historical national accounts. One such question concerns economic and environmental relationships. From a national accounting perspective this issue has been approached in terms of environmental accounting. The aim of this study is to investigate how proposals for integrated environmental and economic accounting can be used for an extension of the Historical National Accounts for examining the long-term relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation and resource depletion. This issue is approached through methodological considerations and estimates of iron ore and timber depletion and discharge of pollutants. The conclusions are that it is possible to construct environmental historical national accounts, but that the lack of historical data and theoretical difficulties cause a high level of abstraction and other problems concerning the series. The empirical investigations show that the 19th century can be considered a period of depletion intensive growth. Furthermore, there seems to be evidence of a correlation between changes in the natural resource net prices and previous periodizations of economic development. Concerning pollutants, the analyses shows an increase of the aggregated discharges until the late 1960s. However, the pollution intensity of growth has fallen throughout the period, possibly in a pattern of long trend periods.