Rising inequality: A material perspective on the Great Recession in the European Union

IF 6.6 2区经济学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Ecological Economics Pub Date : 2024-10-20 DOI:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108417

Anke Schaffartzik , Juan Antonio Duro

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The 2007/8 economic crisis and the global Great Recession led to widespread turmoil and instability. In Europe, unprecedented reductions in per capita resource use were crisis-driven rather than the result of deliberate policies. This study examines material use patterns in the EU-27 from 2000 to 2020, covering the period before and the onset of the Great Recession. We find that average material consumption in Europe decreased and has since stagnated, although this trend is uneven, with growing underlying inequalities, as measured using the Theil index of metabolic rates. The patterns in construction materials especially shape overall resource use trajectories. The role of infrastructure and services provisioning, especially where these are fossil-fueled, emerges as key in understanding these patterns. Geographic groupings of EU member states—Northern, Eastern, Mediterranean, and Central—further explain the inequalities that deepened following the recession. These emerging disparities raise important questions about what underpins the European project in a Union in which growth or sustained wealth in some member states systematically coincides with what can only be described as collapse elsewhere.

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不平等加剧：从物质角度看欧盟大衰退

2007/8 年经济危机和全球大衰退导致了广泛的动荡和不稳定。在欧洲，人均资源使用量的空前减少是危机驱动的结果，而不是政策深思熟虑的结果。本研究考察了 2000 年至 2020 年欧盟 27 国的材料使用模式，涵盖了大衰退之前和开始的时期。我们发现，欧洲的平均材料消耗量有所下降，此后停滞不前，但这一趋势并不均衡，使用代谢率的 Theil 指数衡量，潜在的不平等现象日益严重。建筑材料的使用模式尤其影响了资源的整体使用轨迹。基础设施和服务供应（尤其是化石燃料供应）的作用是理解这些模式的关键。欧盟成员国的地理分组--北部、东部、地中海和中部--进一步解释了经济衰退后加深的不平等。这些新出现的不平等现象提出了一些重要问题，即在一个某些成员国持续增长或持续富裕的欧盟中，欧洲项目的基础是什么？

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Ecological Economics 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

12.00

自引率

5.70%

发文量

313

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership. Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.