Nature's Numbers: Expanding the National Economic Accounts to Include the Environment

Rating:
Summary: Accessible information on "Greening" the NIPA
Review: Nature's numbers is the work of the Panel on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting chaired by William Nordhaus (Economist) to "address the question of whether the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) should be broadened to include activities involving natural resources and the environment" p.1.

The book has five sections, the Introduction, a brief history of NIPA and its application to the environment, accounting for subsoil mineral resources, accounting for renewable and environmental resources and an overall appraisal. It also includes useful appendices giving data sources, mathematical formulae for forestry accounting and an explanation of the Output-sustainability correspondence principle.

This book is very accessible, and requires only minimal familiarity with national income accounting, and environmental economics. Chapter 1 is a short history of national income accounts. Chapter 2 discusses the deficiencies of the traditional measures and how economists are trying to incorporate non-economic forms of capital into the accounting framework. Chapter 3 is a brief discussion of how to account for subsoil minerals and what the current problems are that face those who try to measure these resources, not only measurement problems, but conceptual as well, such as appropriate discount rates when valuing mineral stocks. Chapter 4 discusses renewable and environmental resources focusing on forests and air quality; again the authors discuss the valuation issues both within the U.S (B.E.A) and also overseas. The final chapter deals with recommendations from the panel about what the B.E.A should do, and not surprisingly requests extra funding for the B.E.A to carry out this task. Among the other recommendations, the panel suggests that the B.E.A should work on a comprehensive set of accounts rather than the staged-approach that it had previously followed till it was ordered to cease work on its task.

Those who would find this book useful are mostly students of economics and/or the environment. It is quite informative and gives the flavor of what it is those involved in the collection, interpretation and distribution of statistics are involved in. There is not much math (for the math averse) and whatever math is involved is in the Appendix.

Rating:
Summary: Accessible information on "Greening" the NIPA
Review: Nature's numbers is the work of the Panel on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting chaired by William Nordhaus (Economist) to "address the question of whether the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) should be broadened to include activities involving natural resources and the environment" p.1.

The book has five sections, the Introduction, a brief history of NIPA and its application to the environment, accounting for subsoil mineral resources, accounting for renewable and environmental resources and an overall appraisal. It also includes useful appendices giving data sources, mathematical formulae for forestry accounting and an explanation of the Output-sustainability correspondence principle.

This book is very accessible, and requires only minimal familiarity with national income accounting, and environmental economics. Chapter 1 is a short history of national income accounts. Chapter 2 discusses the deficiencies of the traditional measures and how economists are trying to incorporate non-economic forms of capital into the accounting framework. Chapter 3 is a brief discussion of how to account for subsoil minerals and what the current problems are that face those who try to measure these resources, not only measurement problems, but conceptual as well, such as appropriate discount rates when valuing mineral stocks. Chapter 4 discusses renewable and environmental resources focusing on forests and air quality; again the authors discuss the valuation issues both within the U.S (B.E.A) and also overseas. The final chapter deals with recommendations from the panel about what the B.E.A should do, and not surprisingly requests extra funding for the B.E.A to carry out this task. Among the other recommendations, the panel suggests that the B.E.A should work on a comprehensive set of accounts rather than the staged-approach that it had previously followed till it was ordered to cease work on its task.

Those who would find this book useful are mostly students of economics and/or the environment. It is quite informative and gives the flavor of what it is those involved in the collection, interpretation and distribution of statistics are involved in. There is not much math (for the math averse) and whatever math is involved is in the Appendix.