The Future of the World Economy

A United Nations Study

Bibliographic Data

ID4122069
AuthorsG Mcn, Wassily Leontief
Year1977
Volume3
Issue3
Pages334
Publication date1977-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopulation and Development Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1971905
OpenAlexW1991558817
LanguageEN
Citations received19

This report is a study on the environmental aspects of the future world economy based on investigations by the United Nations which were initiated in 1973. Alternative projections are made of the demographic economic and environmental states of the world in the years 1980 1990 and 2000. A global economic model displays interrelationships between environmental and economic policies. Variables include regional economies agriculture mineral resources manufacturing activities trade transportation and communication exports and imports capital flows foreign interest payments technology cost of production and relative prices. Different scenarios are analyzed in which growth rates of gross product per capita were set to reduce the income gap between developing and developed countries by the year 2000. Scenarios deal with: 1) food and agriculture 2) adequacy of mineral resources 3) economic cost of pollution abatement 4) investment and industrialization and changes in world trade and 5) a new economic order involving balance-of-payments deficits of developing countries. The findings are: 1) target rates of growth of gross product in developing regions are not sufficient to close the income gap between developed and developing countries 2) limits to sustained economic growth and accelerated development are political social and institutional in character rather than physical 3) feeding the rapidly increasing population of developing regions can be solved by cultivating large areas of unexploited arable land and by doubling and trebling land productivity 4) supply of mineral resources for accelerated development is not a problem of scarcity in the present century 5) current abatement technology can manage pollution problems 6) accelerated development in developing regions is possible if 30-40% of their gross product is used for capital investment 7) accelerated development necessitates a faster growth of heavy industry 8) accelerated development leads to a continuous increase in the share of developing regions in world gross product and industrial production 9) balance-of-payments can be reduced by either reducing the rates of development or closing the potential payments gap by introducing changes in the economic relations between developing and developed countries and 10) reduction of potential trade imbalance is to significantly decrease their import dependence on manufactured products

Business · Development economics · Economics · Economy · International trade · Political science · World economy · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Law · Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy