Towards unitary economics: Valuation of environmental capital for environmental stewardship Available to Purchase

The paper presents a simple method of valuation that can sit beside ideology of a unitary economics, which seeks a synergy between materialistic and non‐materialistic aspects of welfare. The non‐materialistic item considered here is environmental stewardship, the lack of which is widespread among neoclassical economists. This is due to the belief that technology could always offset the problems of resource scarcity. The paper uses the basic tools of neoclassical economics to illustrate that resource scarcity is a real issue and that an improved sense of environmental stewardship is warranted. This illustration involves the valuation of environmental capital from the statement of national accounts. Scarcity indicators are defined in terms of the price of environmental capital. This price, which consists of an interest rate and a cost of depreciation, is empirically estimated for Australia.