Beyond a Reasonable Productivity

Abstract

Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to capture, productivity can reflect the performance of the labor force, capital, know-how, time, financial resources etc. In this paper we have chosen to analyze the productivity of the twelve most unsustainable economies worldwide: United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Belgium, Kuwait, Singapore, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Japan and the United States of America. The research is based on statistical data provided by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Global Footprint Network. The research is based on economical, environmental and development indexes used to evaluate productivity adjusted by the ecological deficit of the nations. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is how productive would actually be the selected countries if their economies would be responsible enough to resume themselves to their own biocapacities. The secondary hypothesis is what global impact has the complete disregard of the planet’s limited capacity to support social and economical activities. The empirical analysis will provide answers to both questions, emphasizing once more the interdependencies between the global actors and the need to incorporate the environmental perspective when analyzing the economic performance of a country.

Keywords: Economic productivity, Social fairness, Biocapacity, sustainability