Human Well-Being and the Natural Environment

by Partha Dasgupta

Dasgupta develops methods of valuation and evaluation with the aim of measuring, and searching to improve, the quality of our lives. He focuses on the ways in which our quality of life is now known to be tied to the natural environment.

Genres: Economics

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 10, 2001

About the author

Professor Sir Partha Sarathi Dasgupta (born November 17, 1942), FBA, FRS, is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge; Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Professor of Environmental and Development Economics at the University of Manchester. Research interests have covered welfare and development economics; the economics of technological change; population, environmental, and resource economics; social capital; the theory of games; and the economics of malnutrition.

He was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, then in India, and is the son of noted economist A.K. Dasgupta. He is married to Carol Dasgupta, who is a psychotherapist. They have three children, Zubeida Dasgupta-Clark (an educational psychologist), Shamik (a philosophy professor) and Aisha (who works on reproductive health in poor countries).

Reviews

[Ce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy reading if you are not familiar with many economic definitions. However, Dasgupta made me think about how the assets we own today and how we manage them can make a difference in terms of future generations and their right to access to the same resources we had and still be able to enjoy natural environment values.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where to start... Partha's attempts to make social cost benefit analysis a framework for wellbeing are admirable but misguided. This is a classic case of "if only we could 'internalize' the externalities we could reform capitalism and stop harming the environment". There are many problems with this line of thinking. On a technical level, the social costs of harmful activities (i.e., accounting prices) are practically impossible to meaningfully calculate. This is not addressed in the book. Secondly, it does nothing to challenge the inherent growth imperative of capitalism. This book, a precursor of today's 'natural capital' economics, doesn't challenge these tenants. It tries to be a mathematical solution to a much wider social challenge of not fucking up the world with capitalism.

[Dev Kar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book made me more aware of the environmental factors that should be taken into account in macroeconomic growth m models and in development policies in general. Natural resources are finite and to the extent they are depleted, the unbridled pursuit of growth to the exclusion of their environmental impact, cannot go on indefinitely. Sooner or later, such growth policies are bound to end in environmental disasters. Indians have been facing an increasingly adverse quality of life in recent years as a result of growth policies that ignore environmental consequences.