2002 World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists

Net or ‘genuine' saving measures the total change in the real value of economic assets. Estimates of genuine saving published by the World Bank broaden the usual national accounts definitions of assets to include human capital, minerals, energy, forest resources and the stock of atmospheric CO2. This paper shows that increases in real wealth per capita correspond precisely to increases in the present value of per capita welfare; falls in real wealth per capita imply that welfare per capita must fall over some future period. A theoretical approach to total wealth estimation is developed and cross-country estimates of changes in per capita wealth are presented. These estimates suggest that, with the notable exception of China, the majority of countries below median per capita income are in fact accumulating total wealth at a rate less than the rate of population growth.



	Paper Title:	Sustaining Per Capita Welfare
	Presenting Author:	Kirk Hamilton (The World Bank)
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	Coauthor 2:
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	Abstract:	Net or ‘genuine' saving measures the total change in the real value of economic assets. Estimates of genuine saving published by the World Bank broaden the usual national accounts definitions of assets to include human capital, minerals, energy, forest resources and the stock of atmospheric CO2. This paper shows that increases in real wealth per capita correspond precisely to increases in the present value of per capita welfare; falls in real wealth per capita imply that welfare per capita must fall over some future period. A theoretical approach to total wealth estimation is developed and cross-country estimates of changes in per capita wealth are presented. These estimates suggest that, with the notable exception of China, the majority of countries below median per capita income are in fact accumulating total wealth at a rate less than the rate of population growth.
	Link to paper:	http://weber.ucsd.edu/~carsonvs/papers/681.doc

	Session / Day / Time	8G / Tuesday / 4:00 - 6:00 pm

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