Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272766 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16139
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The economic expansion witnessed in the last 0,08% of modern human history is an anomalous event. It has been compared to a "rocket ship that took off five seconds ago, and nobody knows where it's going." This paper explores the destiny of this rocket ship. It shows that economic growth cannot continue indefinitely and critically reviews Green Growth and Degrowth as responses to planetary overshoot. It concludes that neither Green Growth nor Degrowth will stop overshoot. Moreover, Degrowth may worsen the environment, is a costly method to reduce carbon emissions, is a form of austerity for the working class, is redundant, and is politically infeasible. Finally, a third approach beyond Green Growth and Degrowth is outlined: acceptance of an inevitable societal collapse (as a feature, and not a bug, of complexity) and managing such a collapse to minimise harm, and to get rid of obsolete structures. This may lay the foundation for rebound growth, and a transition to a new kind of economy, which could be as qualitatively different from the current global economy as the industrial world differed from the hunter-gatherer world.
Subjects: 
Green Growth
Degrowth
energy
ecology
development
collapse
JEL: 
O40
O33
D01
D64
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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