Growth, Development, and Economic Transformation - Essay Example

This would result in lesser inequality when a particular level of GDP per capita is achieved because of the trickling down of growth benefits. Furthermore, as economic growth takes place, people’s incomes grow and the resulting structural changes in the mindset and attitudes of people invoke them to become environmentally conscious which leads to ‘greener’ measures in the society, thereby reducing the rate of environmental degradation. The other aspect is that increased incomes and environmental awareness can induce governments to impose tighter environmental controls thereby enhancing environmental quality.

Another theoretical framework to explain this is the “self-regulatory market mechanism” associated with the exchange of natural resources within an economy (Unruh & Moomaw, 1998). The stock of natural resources tends to decrease during the early growth stages which results in increased prices. This price signaling mechanism then induces lower exploitation of natural resources at subsequent stages in economic growth (due to high prices) (Unruh & Moomaw, 1998) (World Bank, 1992). Due to this reason, economies also tend to shift towards technologies that are less resource intensive.

Thus, the shape of the Kuznets’ Curve (see Appendix 1) is not only explained by enhanced environmental government expenditure but also the price signaling mechanism of the free markets (Torras & Boyce, 1998). One school of thought argues that the present rate of environmental degradation has a tendency to enlarge in the long run, hence, government policy should aim at more rapid economic growth in order to climb up the hump or the turning point soonest possible. However this maybe a tedious process, taking several years before the curve slopes downward; the longer the wait the higher the abatement costs.

Hence, the policy of waiting for the relationship to become negative can be potentially damaging. A more appropriate policy is to “tunnel through” the curve and to flatten it through government interventions such as subsidies on energy and agrochemicals and property rights on natural resources. It is also important to note that developing nations cannot follow what their developed nations did in early stages of development (Unruh & Moomaw, 1998). Infact, the amount of greenhouse emissions inherited by today’s less developed nations is much higher than that inherited by their developed counterparts in similar stage of development.

Infact, several resource-intensive industries have shifted from the North to South, thus putting the latter at a disadvantaged position. In the absence of an international government, international environmental policies under the umbrella of ‘sustainability’ are required to enforce both wings (the developed and developing) to cut down environmentally harmful emissions. The change in proportions of labor and capital across various sectors in an economy is one of the most significant features of economic progress of a nation.

Research by Clark, Kuznets and Chenery has produced solid evidence for the notion of decline in the role of agricultural (primary) and secondary sectors of an economy and the simultaneous increase in the role of tertiary sector as the economy develops (Clark, 1940). However, in recent years there has been growing consensus amongst researchers such as Maddison, Buera and Kaboski that while the