energy consumption and sustainable economic welfare in g7 countries a comparison with the conventional nexus abstract this is an empirical study on the causal relationship between sustainable economic welfare growth and energy consumption for canada france germany italy japan uk and the usa using a multivariate panel framework with variables such as employment capital energy consumption and r d the short and long run relationships are compared with those produced from the commonly known so far energy gdp gross domestic product growth relationship results mainly show that in the long run g7 economies can reduce energy consumption without compromising sustainable economic welfare in the short run though both gdp and economic welfare are very much dependent on energy consumption for their materialization of growth sustainable or not the current paper follows the tendency of new economics that shift their focus therein and propagate the use of sustainable welfare in place of the criticized gdp the calculation of the index for sustainable economic welfare isew reveals that uk closely followed by usa have the largest gap on average 52 and 50 respectively between their gdp and sustainable economic welfare japan is experiencing a steadily widening gap while canada is the most sustainable country among g7

application and use of the isew for assessing the sustainability of a regional system a case study in italy abstract the index of sustainable economic welfare isew was introduced by daly and cobb in 1989 in order to integrate the information embodied in gdp since economic growth implies externalities and market failures and a portion of it can be defined as uneconomic the isew method introduces some corrections and adjustments to the gdp calculation framework the isew has been calculated for a number of nations but it has been rarely applied to sub national systems its calculation at the local level is important especially in case of administrative decentralization and autonomy and responsibility of local authorities in certain fields for this reason a more and more comprehensive knowledge of the characteristics and peculiarities of the territorial system they manage is necessary this paper presents the results of the isew calculation for tuscany a region in central italy in the period 1971 2006 this is one of the few attempts to apply the isew in time series at the regional level final results show that a discrepancy between isew and gdp appeared in the 1970s social and environmental pressures increased during the period under study making the gap equal to about 30 percent of regional gdp in 2006 the isew can be used also as a tool for evaluating policies but further adjustments in calculation of certain items are considered necessary for taking into account and evaluating punctual policies a case of energy policy is presented

the index of sustainable economic welfare isew for a local authority a case study in italy abstract the index of sustainable economic welfare isew has been calculated for many countries but rarely at the local level this paper shows how the index has been calculated for the province of siena central italy the whole procedure is illustrated step by step including the search for the most suitable and precise methods to obtain reliable values for each item composing the index application of isew at a very local level was found to be feasible the most general difficulty encountered was the lack of an adequate institutionalised source of statistical information to support the construction of indicators other than purely economic or demographic ones this is mainly due to the still low interest for a sustainable management of natural resources and land on the part of local authorities and the related willingness to invest money and human resources on environmental research the isew gives a more realistic representation of the well being of the population than gdp since it includes environmental and social items not considered in conventional national accounting furthermore in italy the principle of administrative decentralization has been implemented in recent years to such an extent that the central government devolved part of its power to regions provinces and municipalities consequently local authorities are called to allocate more resources to pursue their policies towards sustainability an issue which modern electoral campaigns are often based on the results for the province of siena show that there is a large gap between local gdp and isew about 37 of gdp

barriers and opportunities for alternative measures of economic welfare this paper explores a number of barriers and opportunities facing alternative measures of economic welfare by conducting semi structured in depth interviews with potential users in both belgium and germany the barriers that they identified are grouped into three categories context factors are embedded in the policy context and agendas that shape the environment in which an indicator percolates indicator factors depend on specific characteristics of the indicators while user factors relate to the level of experience and expertise of the users of indicators and the institutional culture in which they operate drawing on the different barriers that are reported we identify four opportunities to increase the policy value of alternative measures of economic welfare harmonizing and updating the methodological framework extending macroeconomic models to include a wider range of welfare related items improving the communication around these indicators and promoting indicator and researcher entrepreneurship these opportunities should be regarded as recommendations to the scientific community that works on these alternative measures the process of overcoming the different barriers listed in this paper should not be insurmountable as there is clear international public support for using health social and environmental statistics as well as economic statistics to measure societal progress and human well being

do we ecologically model what we economically value for the period 1991 2005 inclusive we categorise peer reviewed journal output depending on whether it pertains to case studies in a cropland or b aggregate semi natural and natural terrestrial asnnt ecosystems for three applications in ecological modelling 1 modelling of terrestrial carbon and nitrogen fluxes 2 modelling of terrestrial root systems 3 geographic information systems next we compare these research output magnitudes for case studies in cropland and asnnt ecosystems with estimates of the total economic value tev of either system

multistage financing of technical start up companies in silicon valley abstract financing remains an issue that entrepreneurs face long after their initial financing has been obtained in technical companies that face changing customers competitors and technology the need to finance new products to replace earlier products can be of vital importance to growth and survival venture capital firms that invest in technical companies also recognize the need for subsequent financing to maintain growth and thus protect the initial investment this research explored both the venture capitalist s and the entrepreneur s viewpoints the principal questions asked in the research were 1 how are subsequent rounds of investment considered and made by venture capitalists and 2 what problems occur in the entrepreneur s search for subsequent funding a combination of in depth interviews and mailed questionnaires was used in the research to obtain responses from a sample of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in silicon valley this approach produced observations on the venture capitalists methods of making risk return trade offs and on the reasons why entrepreneurs face problems in obtaining funding for second new products specifically it was found that venture capital firms reduce the risk associated with funding young companies by showing preferences for certain stages of financing or for funding single versus multiple round investments these preferences appear to be idiosyncratic and entrepreneurs must be careful to deal with venture capitalists whose tendencies are consistent with the entrepreneurs goals it was also found that a major problem faced by entrepreneurs seeking funding for second products is the effort required for the search this effort takes away from their ability to perform day to day management activities at a crucial time in the growth of the firm implications are drawn for improving the effectiveness of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists efforts as well as for future research

the entrepreneur s search for capital abstract the popular media have been inundated with stories of the spectacular success of start up companies whose very existence let alone their meteoric growth would not have been possible without the infusion of venture capital by comparison there is a dearth of scientific research on the topic of venture capital in this article we take a systematic look at entrepreneurs in search of risk capital this inquiry is based upon five data bases including surveys of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs we have tracked 193 ventures which were denied venture capital surveyed 179 new high technology companies in northern california and reviewed the dun bradstreet credit reports of 145 new ventures in california in sic codes related to the high tech sector with follow up interviews of 86 of these 145 start ups

diminishing and negative welfare returns of economic growth an index of sustainable economic welfare isew for thailand thailand has achieved remarkable levels of economic growth over the last three decades this sustained economic growth has played a major role in reducing absolute poverty levels from nearly one third of the population in 1975 to presently less than 10 thus increasing the welfare of many thais this performance ranks thailand as one of the world s most successful economies during this period however an increasing number of studies have begun to find that at a certain point achieving economic growth stops improving welfare and actually begins to diminish it due to the hidden and traditionally unreported costs of associated with this growth with one exception these new studies have focussed on high income countries this study will estimate an index of sustainable economic welfare isew for a developing country thailand over a 25 year period 1975 1999 this paper concludes that even low middle income countries are beginning to approach the point in which economic growth produces both diminishing and at times negative welfare returns as the costs of achieving economic growth begin to outweigh the benefits these results are important for policy makers and highlight the importance of implementing alternative welfare enhancing interventions that must be considered in place of simply achieving economic growth the emphasis of this paper is not on the methodology of estimating the isew for thailand but rather on the policy implications for developing countries of diminishing and negative welfare returns brought about through the achievement of economic growth

the index of sustainable economic welfare isew as an alternative to gdp in measuring economic welfare the results of the austrian revised isew calculation 1955 1992 abstract although the inadequacy of gdp to measure economic welfare is widely accepted theoretically it is still used as the key indicator for economic policy this article s aim therefore is to give some empirical evidence to the theoretical critique economic welfare or at least its change over time is estimated by the index of sustainable economic welfare isew which takes account of gdp unpaid household labor social costs environmental damage and income distribution the concept of the isew which was originally developed by herman daly and john cobb is entirely reformulated with special regard to questions of inner consistency and clarity in structure as an illustration the methods of the calculation in the austria case study and its results are presented the main result is that gdp and economic welfare as measured by the isew differ significantly up until the 1970s gdp only slightly overestimated the growth of economic welfare but since then it has been completely misleading while gdp continues to rise sustainable economic welfare has been stagnating since the middle of the 1980s the main causes have been growing future welfare reductions increasing income inequality and a stagnation in the value of unpaid household labor as gdp neglects those aspects it systematically misinterprets economic welfare however the isew does not intend to simply replace gdp as a unique welfare measure but should form part of a more holistic social reporting system

the sustainable welfare index towards a threshold effect for italy abstract gdp as a key parameter for macro economic policy has long been criticized one of the better known monetary alternatives to gdp is the isew a synthetic proxy of sustainable welfare theoretical and methodological limitations of this indicator have been identified and several refinements or extensions proposed gpi for example building on these approaches this article presents a new composite flow oriented indicator directly comparable with gdp the proposed sustainable welfare index swi is calculated for the italian case over the 1960 2014 period the estimate of swi over an extended period of fifty four years provides evidence for a previously undetected threshold effect in italy by means of a flow oriented indicator unlike gdp swi per capita stops increasing in 1991 empirical results show that the level of sustainable welfare in italy stops growing mainly because of a rise in income inequality a decline in non paid domestic work and a worsening of the net fixed capital formation and net international investment position

the genuine progress indicator methodological developments and results from australia abstract this paper is a contribution to the continuing development of the methods and results for the index of sustainable economic welfare also known as the genuine progress indicator gpi it attempts a more systematic approach to some of the components of the gpi it includes a more careful specification of types of capital and more plausible methods of estimating the costs of depletion of non renewable resources and environmental damage due to ozone depletion in addition the paper attempts a more comprehensive treatment of the value of time including the costs of unemployment and overwork results of the gpi calculations for australia over the period 1950 1996 are presented and analysed

employment change in independent owner managed high technology firms in great britain there is a growing volume of literature that points to the potential for small technology based firms to achieve substantial employment growth as a direct consequence of such work this sector of any economy has attracted increasing attention from national and local governments concerned with finding ways of revitalising economically deprived localities and creating employment opportunities this paper provides up to date empirical evidence surrounding the ability of small high technology firms to create additional jobs in great britain in addition key founder and business characteristics are isolated which are significantly associated with employment change in growing high technology firms over the 1986 to 1992 period with respect to factors influencing these high levels of employment growth a high firm size in 1986 was found to act positively on employment growth as was a graduate level education for the key founder on the finance side firms which had access to and used a multiplicity of sources of start up finance tended to grow faster futher on the basis of our results we would suggest and recommend a government policy which at the firm level actively encourages high technology firm start ups who record higher rates of survival than firms in more conventional sectors as well as providing support for existing high technology firms who have already demonstrated the inclination and ability to grow in employment size

the economic performance of innovative small firms in the south east region and elsewhere in the uk thwaites a and wynarczyk p 1996 the economic performance of innovative small firms in the south east region and elsewhere in the uk reg studies 30 135 149 the paper explores the contribution of innovative small firms to local economic performance in different regional environments in the uk the empirical analysis is based on a sample of small independent firms listed on the spru innovation database 1975 83 it uses detailed financial and other data on each firm to examine their performance in different operational environments the results suggest that the average innovative sme exhibits many of the characteristics of a fast growth firm however the modus operandi of enterprise appears to differ between firms located in the south east region and other parts of the uk and these differences lead to variable outcomes in terms of employment asset and export growth thwaites a et wynarczyk p 1996 la performance economique des petites entreprises innovatrices situees dans la region sud est et d

determinants of required return in venture capital investments a five country study abstract using two complementary theoretical perspectives we develop hypotheses regarding the determinants of the return required by venture capitalists and test them on a sample of over 200 venture capital companies vccs located in five countries consistent with resource based theory we find that early stage specialists require a significantly higher return than other vccs when investing in later stage ventures consistent with financial theory we find that acquisition buyout specialists require a significantly lower return than other vccs when investing in expansion companies furthermore in comparison to specialists highly stage diversified vccs require a significantly higher return for early stage investments independent vccs require a higher rate of return than captive or public vccs in general higher required returns are associated with vccs who provide more intensity of involvement have shorter expected holding period of the investment and being located in the us or uk in comparison to those in france belgium and the netherlands

an index of sustainable economic welfare isew for chile abstract chile has experienced a period of strong economic growth the gross domestic product gdp has doubled in the past 12 years however income inequality remains relatively the same as in the 1960s the economic growth is primarily attributed to the exports of natural resources which accounts for 80 of total exports however the gdp fails to account for the loss of natural capital and non marketed services the objective of this paper is to more clearly indicate the status of the chilean economy in terms of welfare using the index of sustainable economic welfare isew designed by daly and cobb 1989 the isew provides corrections to the gdp that includes income inequalities household labor and damage to natural capital this index has been applied in several case studies for developed countries in general the results show that isew runs parallel with gdp until the 1970s when a decline in welfare occurs due to a loss in natural capital this study is the first attempt to utilize the isew for the purpose of analyzing whether or not similar trends exist for chile a developing country the isew for chile grew at a much slower annual rate over the past 30 years compared with gdp 0 16 vs 2 9 the chilean isew parallels the gdp until the 1980s a decline in the isew then occurs showing that chile is not on a sustainable path and that there is a strong link between economic growth and the depletion of natural resources

factors affecting success and failure of seed capital start up negotiations abstract start up companies present many uncertainties for both entrepreneurs and seed capital investors although both seek financial rewards they typically have different perceptions about what must be done to achieve them the strong vision of the entrepreneur is often based on a compelling fascination with a new product he knows that business issues are important but believes they can be dealt with routinely if the product is clearly superior venture capital investors encounter good ideas every day the business issues are the critical factors for them and they must be planned carefully if the promise of the entrepreneur s vision is to be realized these different concepts for creating wealth come together in the negotiation process for seed capital investments in start up enterprises the author studied six factors that enter into these negotiations they are market product team risk time and deal he conducted a survey of venture capital organizations to assess the relative importance of these factors in determining the outcome of negotiations the survey sent questionnaires to 137 members of the western association of venture capitalists each respondent was asked to complete it for three negotiations that succeeded and three that failed eighty nine questionnaires were returned from 18 respondents reporting on 47 negotiations that succeeded and 42 that failed the results suggest that business factors are more important than product characteristics for successful negotiations among the business factors markets that offer unconstrained opportunities for rapid growth are significantly more important than the completeness of the team a credible business plan rapid return on investment or favorable terms the most important reason for failure of negotiations is a business plan in which too many things could go wrong even where there are strong market opportunities both entrepreneurs and investors should find these results useful entrepreneurs need not approach venture capitalists if they are not part of a rapidly growing market or cannot create a new one with no constraints on the growth of their companies given good market opportunities business plans must be readily believable to avoid failure of negotiations products need not promise major improvements over others in the market but they must have a competitive edge although the team must be highly qualified it does not necessarily need to be complete at the start up stage investors may be interested to know that successful negotiations typically do not depend on unusually rapid return on investment or particularly favorable investment equity ratios they can expect negotiations to fail if the business plan is very risky even where market opportunities are good

the financing of business start ups abstract this article investigates the determinants of capital structure and types of financing used around business start ups utilizing a survey that reduces the confounding effects of survivorship bias in particular the influence of start up size asset structure organization type growth orientation and owners characteristics are examined both in the choice and in the magnitude of finance use the results are consistent with the theoretical models incorporating issues such as information asymmetries agency theory and transaction costs the results also demonstrate linkages among providers of finance maturity of assets and the capital structure of start ups while the results provide insights into business finances near the time of creation some recommendations for future research are discussed

genuine progress indicator 2 0 pilot accounts for the us maryland and city of baltimore 2012 2014 abstract for over thirty years the genuine progress indicator gpi has been used to evaluate economic performance quantify benefits and costs of growth and predict effects of policy changes on economic wellbeing the popularity and use of the metric is increasing partially in response to new global demands for metrics that go beyond gross domestic product gdp however because the basic gpi accounting protocols have yet to be consistently updated to respond to theoretical critiques new valuation methods and new data sources a proliferation of studies at the global national and sub national level contain widely divergent methodologies because of this gpi practitioners have called for a new consistent framework to guide future gpi studies gpi 2 0 this paper is an attempt to operationalize some of the concepts that have emerged from gpi 2 0 deliberations online and at recent workshops in the form of gpi 2 0 pilot accounts for the us state of maryland and city of baltimore the goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of multi scale gpi accounts that provide a more accurate measure of current economic welfare than gdp and that incorporate new methods and sources of information to replace many of the outdated aspects of the prevailing gpi approach

measuring sustainability a time series of alternative indicators for scotland this paper presents results from a time series analysis of seven alternative measures of sustainability for scotland the measures chosen are green net national product genuine savings ecological footprint environmental space net primary productivity the index of sustainable economic welfare and the genuine progress indicator these are all measures at the national or macro level we note arguments in the literature that no one single measure of sustainability is likely to be sufficient however very different messages concerning the sustainability of scotland over the period in question 1980 1993 emerge from these measures chosen we also argue that different indicators provide different insights for policy making

evaluating the costs of raising capital through an initial public offering abstract this article provides an empirical analysis of the costs of going public based on a sample of 1852 offerings during 1977 1987 the sample includes 1556 firm commitment issues and 296 best efforts issues three components of the cost of going public are examined 1 direct cash expenses such as legal and accounting costs 2 investment bank s commission and 3 costs resulting from the investment bank practice of pricing initial public offerings below their market values all of the cost components are significantly higher for best efforts offerings than for firm commitments in fact best efforts offerings are more than three times as expensive on a percentage basis than are firm commitments in addition there are marked economies of scale in the process of going public the total costs of going public were 40 of gross proceeds for the smallest firm commitment issues but only 15 for the largest in dollar terms we estimate that a typical small firm commitment offering of 2 5 million will cost approximately 800 000 32 of gross proceeds whereas a large issue of 25 million will cost approximately 4 million 16 of gross proceeds the issuing firm s earnings as well as the type of investment bank underwriting the issue were also important cost determinants the primary implication of our results for entrepreneurs is that it is quite expensive to attempt a public offering prematurely the marginal issuer with a small capital requirement and a poor earnings history will be at a large cost disadvantage to more established firms more specifically we advise that the firm have capital requirements of at least 10 million and positive operating income before attempting a public offering postponing a public offering until the issue will be well received by investors and investment banks is likely to be worth the wait until that time alternative sources of funds will be more cost effective

a venture capital model of the development process for new ventures abstract for years researchers have hypothesized that new ventures develop in a fairly predictable chronological process by evolving through various functional and strategic developmental stages however cross comparable longitudinal data from large numbers of ventures are still not available to validate these stages of development hypotheses the study sought to determine whether venture capital firms which have extensive experience with the longitudinal development of new ventures operate in accord with a common theory about how this process operates these findings also represent a first step toward empirically validating various elements of stages of development theories the study analyzed the perceptions of the ceo or managing partner of 73 u s venture capital firms about key features of the development process for new businesses venture capital firms were asked whether they differentiated stages in the development process for each such stage information was elicited on what the stage was called distinguishing characteristics of ventures in that stage key developmental goals or benchmarks typically accomplished in that stage and the major risks involved sufficient consensus was found on these aspects of the development process for a venture capital model of this process to be constructed the model consists of five sequential stages 1 seed 2 start up 3 second stage 4 third stage and 5 exit stage strong consensus was found on distinguishing characteristics of ventures in early stages of development key developmental goals or benchmarks in various stages and major developmental risks associated with each stage consensus on developmental characteristics diminished somewhat in later stages presumably because of differential rates of development among investees as well as differing degrees of success in accomplishing earlier objectives nevertheless sufficient differences in functional characteristics remained to clearly distinguish later stage investees from early stage investees and to enable differentiations in maturity between third stage and exit stage investees the venture capital developmental model exhibits both similarities and differences from stages of development paradigms first the venture capital model is primarily strategic and market oriented in focus it gives lesser emphasis to the elements of organizational structure management style and management specialization than some stages of development theories although these elements are identified by venture capitalists as potential areas of risk should problems arise second like stages of development paradigms the venture capital model is universal and not venture specific venture capital firms appear to view all potentially feasible business concepts despite differences in product organizational complexity rate of development or ultimate size as passing through the same process sequence albeit at different speeds and with varying degrees of success third the model while reflecting the financial objectives of venture capital investors is primarily shaped by the naturally occurring functional development of investees it does not represent arbitrary requirements imposed on investees to segment the developmental process into steps that would not otherwise occur the development of venture capital investees is influenced by the strategic and financial objectives of venture capital firms thus the model does not necessarily mirror the strategic and dynamic elements of the development process for firms that are not intended by their founders to grow rapidly and then go public or be acquired by a larger corporation or for ventures that must depend upon internally generated funds or bank loans to finance development the venture capital model representing perceptions of 73 venture capital firms derived from longitudinal data for many hundreds of new ventures appears to empirically confirm the concept of an evolutionary progression through key functional and strategic steps which is a central element of most stages of development hypotheses the study did not go into sufficient depth however to provide detail on the influence of factors such as organizational structure and management styles and control systems on development these factors are central elements in several stages of development theories and are arguably of critical importance in the growth survival and financial success of new ventures

economic growth quality environmental sustainability and social welfare in china provincial assessment based on genuine progress indicator gpi abstract in order to devise scientific and sustainable development strategy it is vital to assess the quality of economic growth as a useful complement to traditional economic indicators gpi s most reputed virtue is its great improvement in evaluating environmental and social costs in this paper we estimate the gpi for all 31 provinces in mainland china from 1997 to 2016 gpi estimation is highly sensitive to income inequality climate change damage and depletion of non renewables we address contestable methodological assumptions associated with the three items which have been usually ignored in empirical studies we use the atkinson index in place of the gini index as a measure of income inequality we avoid the problematic duplicated counting of climate change damage and the unjustified cost escalation factor in depletion of non renewables our results show that first gpi per capita has recently declined in some provinces unveiling a threat to social welfare and sustainability second the relative threshold effect the progress of social welfare promotion is slower than the expansion of economic scale has been found in many provinces third resource consumption and environmental pollution especially water pollution and carbon emissions would generate substantial welfare losses

multistage selection and the financing of new ventures using a random sample of 221 new swedish ventures initiated in 1998 we examine why some new ventures are more likely than others to successfully be awarded capital from external sources we examine venture financing as a staged selection process in which two sequential selection events systematically winnow the population of ventures and influence which ventures receive financing for a venture to receive external financing its founders must first select it as a candidate for external funding and then a financier must fund it we find evidence that founders select ventures as candidates for external finance based on their perceptions of market competition market growth and employment growth while financiers base funding decisions on objective verifiable indicators of venture development such as the completion of organizing activities marketing activities and the level of sales of the venture our findings have implications for venture financing and evolutionary theories of social processes

a method for valuing global ecosystem services the goal of this paper is to provide an investigation of several approaches to valuing ecosystem services and to contribute additional techniques which may be used in evaluating green gdp accounts our estimates focus on the ecosystem as a productive economic input not a stock which is depreciated or depleted over time as such it differs with other concepts more frequently employed in green gdp accounting most of our results are derived from the analytical fiction that a single owner of the biosphere establishes a market for all ecological resources this monopolist then appropriates all rents from the human population the maximum amount the monopolist charges is first assumed to be world gross product less the global human subsistence level in addition we examine the excess rents available in factor markets using the assumption of weak complementarity between factor inputs and ecosystem services we also provide more conservative estimates of the value of ecosystem services by investigating the sustainable price the monopolist could charge the global population and by exploring the effects of compensating wage differentials and a non monopolist owner of the ecosystem 1998 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

institutional lending to knowledge based businesses abstract knowledge based businesses kbbs are vital to economic development and revitalization in many regions especially in areas that have experienced a decline in traditional industries while much attention has been devoted to various aspects of traditional small firm financing there is a paucity of empirical research to explain how new knowledge based firms are externally financed the current study researches institutional strategies structures and risk assessment practices of chartered banks and government agencies in a peripheral region of canada it examines the extent to which these institutions have modified traditional lending approaches and practices to meet the needs of knowledge based firms the study explores the existence of institutional lending cultures through an empirical investigation of risk assessment practices employed by account managers two business proposals one for a knowledge based firm and one for a more traditional firm were presented to account managers in chartered banks and government agencies for initial review and subsequent due diligence and risk assessment verbal protocols and interview data obtained at three stages of the due diligence process were analyzed using standard multivariate techniques and consensus analysis ca ca a tool developed to measure cultural agreement in cognitive anthropology was employed to assess the level of agreement among lenders with respect to risk assessment overall the study findings confirm that specialized strategies structures and processes for lending to kbbs are only partially developed are still evolving and are considerably diverse in both the banking and government sectors furthermore the level of agreement among lenders develops during the course of the due diligence process results confirm consensus and the existence of a lending culture sensitive to the needs of kbbs among a select but important subgroup knowledge based lending specialists the paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers entrepreneurs in search of capital and policy makers seeking to develop new business opportunities for regional economic development

a review of limitations of gdp and alternative indices to monitor human wellbeing and to manage eco system functionality abstract the misuse of gross domestic product as a measure of public wellbeing results from the idea that economic growth is always synonymous with enhanced quality of life disregarding the fact that the economy profits from natural social and human capital in order to monitor progress towards sustainability and increased well being governments working closely with scientists developed new metrics that go further than income and material wealth there are several candidates for revisions of the gross domestic product based on a comprehensive literature review this paper identified several possible indicators that intend to adjust supplement or substitute for gross domestic product two main approaches were identified the first uses gross domestic product as foundation to build a complete index and includes proposals to greening gross domestic product socializing the indices and including it in a more comprehensive index the second approach relates to efforts to redefine the indicators with the use of environmentally oriented indicators and socially oriented measures challenges to measure development welfare and wellbeing are discussed to provide a wide angle view of efforts to develop measures of social economic ecological status and progress beyond the current very narrow gross domestic product it was recognized an urgent need for guidance for the development of governance regimes designed to change from short term decision making processes to those which support the multi decade planning and implementation processes that are needed to guide the transition to post fossil carbon societies this comprehensive review covers a wide range of topics from problems of gdp to challenges and thoughts about indicators the review shows that if mankind is concerned with the sustainable development of the planet as a whole then progress indicators measured only in monetary or social terms are limited and restricted to the weak or the medium sustainability model and must be complemented by biophysical indicators it is time to change the global knowledge of what progress really is changing the discussion from growth to sustainable development and human well being

on the methodology of isew gpi and related measures some constructive suggestions and some doubt on the threshold hypothesis existing country studies of the index of sustainable economic welfare isew the genuine progress indicator gpi and related measures while sharing the same basic methodological approach differ with respect to the valuation of important items this paper provides a critical but constructive discussion of the various methods used for the valuation of non renewable resource depletion and long term environmental damage and for the weighting of consumption expenditures for income inequalities several recommendations are given on how to improve the methodology for future updates of existing studies or for the construction of new measures sensitivity analysis shows that if these recommendations are followed for the valuation of resource depletion and long term environmental damage then the so called threshold hypothesis which seems to have gained empirical support from all studies undertaken so far fails to materialise this suggests that as far as factors related to the environment are concerned the widening gap between isew and gpi on the one hand and gross national product gnp on the other might be an artefact of highly contestable methodological assumptions 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

estimates of the genuine progress indicator gpi for vermont chittenden county and burlington from 1950 to 2000 the genuine progress indicator gpi a version of the index of sustainable economic welfare isew is a significantly more comprehensive approach to assessing economic progress than conventional measures like gross domestic product gdp gpi adjusts for income distribution effects the value of household and volunteer work costs of mobility and pollution and the depletion of social and natural capital isew or gpi have been estimated for several countries around the world and a few canadian provinces but we report here on the first multi scale application at the city county and state levels in vermont usa we show that it is feasible to apply the gpi approach at these smaller scales and to compare across scales and with the national average data limitations and problems still exist but potential solutions to these problems also exist all three vermont scales had significantly higher gpi per capita since 1980 than the national average indicating the major differences that can exist within countries the gpi per capita for all vermont scales was similar to the national average in the 1950 1980 period but more than twice the national average by 2000 the main factors explaining this difference had to do with vermont s much better environmental performance than the national average in the post 1980 period d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

proposed changes to the index of sustainable economic welfare an application to belgium abstract this paper presents the results of a belgian case study on the index of sustainable economic welfare isew the index is first compiled using the standard methodology applied in other international studies owing to the short period in which belgium s traditional isew has recently declined it is not possible to draw any solid conclusion regarding max neef s threshold hypothesis after a brief review of the criticism that the isew has attracted over the years the paper then explains and discusses the rationale for omitting the net capital growth and change in net international investment position items it is argued that these items do not comply with the theoretical foundation underpinning the isew the paper also puts forward new valuation methods for several items within the index the escalation factor in the valuation of natural capital depletion is dropped long term environmental damage is valued using a stock based approach and considerably more government expenditures are considered to be non defensive the results of the revised isew show significant improvements in sustainable economic welfare over the entire study period these findings are not in line with the threshold hypothesis finally the paper offers some guidelines for communicating about the isew namely that a all methodological assumptions should be made explicit and b all raw unadjusted data used should be included in any final isew report so as to enable the reader to make his or her own assessment about the assumptions the researcher has employed