Work in a growing and in a steady-state economy

International Journal of Environment, Workplace and Employment

Volumn 1, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 40-52

  Lintott, John ^a  

^a LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

ecological economics; employment; environmental policy; steady state economy; working hours

Indexed keywords

EID: 84903402080     PISSN: 17418437     EISSN: 17418445     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJEWE.2004.005602     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. This paper is about employment, but in some cases, where the meaning is clear from the context, ‘work’ is used to refer to employment. This is in conformity with everyday language, and is not intended to imply that employment is the only kind of work, nor that other forms of work are less important or valuable.
2. The journal Ecological Economics for example has published no articles primarily about employment issues, with the exception of Heuting, R. (1996) ‘Three persistent myths in the environment debate’, Ecological Economics, Vol. 18, pp.81–88. The more informal setting of the Ecological Economics Bulletin and its predecessor the ISEE Newsletter has also seen two articles advocating Ecological Tax Reform [21–22].
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18. It is worth noting in passing that, in as much as arguments are intended to address the political obstacles to more ecologically friendly policies, their effectiveness is likely to be limited. Opposition to job losses in a particular industry will not be much affected by the knowledge that there are job gains elsewhere. Estimates of employment effects of environmental policies vary, as we just saw, but there is general agreement about their distribution: job losses concentrated in a few industries, combined with job gains spread thinly across the rest of the economy [12,17]. This means that opposition to such policies may come from a minority of industrial sectors, but it is likely to be more organised and vocal than support from other sectors. In the UK, such support is further undermined by government reluctance to recycle all ecological taxes, and by its willingness to grant exemptions to particular industries.
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