Economic Analysis of Trade-offs between Justices

We argue that economics - as the scientific method of analysing trade-offs - can be helpful (and may even be indispensable) for assessing the trade-offs between intergenerational and intragenerational justice. Economic analysis can delineate the "opportunity set" of politics with respect to the two normative objectives of inter- and intragenerational justice, i.e. it can describe which outcomes are feasible in achieving the two objectives in a given context, and which are not. It can distinguish efficient from inefficient uses of instruments of justice. It can identify the "opportunity cost" of attaining one justice to a higher degree, in terms of less achievement of the other. We find that, under very general conditions, (1) efficiency in the use of instruments of justice implies that there is rivalry between the two justices and the opportunity cost of either justice is positive; (2) negative opportunity costs of achieving one justice exist if there is facilitation between the two justices, which can only happen if instruments of justice are used inefficiently; (3) opportunity costs of achieving one justice are zero if the two justices are independent of each other, which is the case in the interior of the opportunity set where instruments of justice are used inefficiently

Economic Analysis of Trade-offs between Justices

We argue that economics – as the scientific method of analysing trade-offs – can be helpful (and may even be indispensable) for assessing the trade-offs between intergenerational and intragenerational justice. Economic analysis can delineate the “opportunity set” of politics with respect to the two normative objectives of inter- and intragenerational justice, i.e. it can describe which outcomes are feasible in achieving the two objectives in a given context, and which are not. It can distinguish efficient from inefficient uses of instruments of justice. It can identify the “opportunity cost” of attaining one justice to a higher degree, in terms of less achievement of the other. We find that, under very general conditions, (1) efficiency in the use of instruments of justice implies that there is rivalry between the two justices and the opportunity cost of either justice is positive; (2) negative opportunity costs of achieving one justice exist if there is facilitation between the two justices, which can only happen if instruments of justice are used inefficiently; (3) opportunity costs of achieving one justice are zero if the two justices are independent of each other, which is the case in the interior of the opportunity set where instruments of justice are used inefficiently

institutional innovation from the bottom up?

A sustainable economy fulfills societal needs in a fundamentally different way to the current economic system. Improvements to the efficiency of existing technologies or practices appear insufficient for achieving sustainable development within the planetary boundaries. Disruptive, systemic and transformational changes appear necessary in order to replace existing technologies and practices to establish a sustainable economy. Such innovations often start out in niches; however, the scaling up and the ultimate replacement of current socio-technical systems requires governance to allow for the coordination of actors, the reorganization of socio-technical systems and the mobilization and allocation of resources. As governmental institutions are part of the current (non-sustainable) systems and thereby fail to provide coherent, integrated and transformative governance, we explore whether institutional innovation from non-state actors can step in to provide governance of transformation processes. Based on explorative qualitative case studies of networks in the food sector, city planning and reporting tools, we analyze the potential of bottom-up institutional innovations to coordinate actors in transformation processes

Ökonomische Analyse der Trade-offs zwischen Gerechtigkeiten

Wir argumentieren, dass die Ökonomik - als wissenschaftliche Methode zur Analyse von Trade-offs - hilfreich (und vielleicht sogar unverzichtbar) sein kann, um die Trade-offs zwischen intergenerationeller und intragenerationeller Gerechtigkeit zu beurteilen. Eine ökonomische Analyse kann die 'Möglichkeitenmenge' der Politik im Hinblick auf die beiden normativen Ziele der inter- und der intragenerationellen Gerechtigkeit darstellen; d.h. sie kann beschreiben, welche Ergebnisse bei der Realisierung dieser beiden Ziele innerhalb eines gegebenen Kontexts möglich sind und welche nicht. Zudem kann sie zwischen einer effizienten und ineffizienten Verwendung von Instrumenten der Gerechtigkeit unterscheiden. Sie kann die Opportunitätskosten der höheren Zielerreichung eines Gerechtigkeitsziels in Bezug zur geringeren Zielerreichung eines anderen darstellen. Wir stellen fest, dass unter sehr allgemeinen Bedingungen (1) Effizienz bei der Nutzung von Instrumenten der Gerechtigkeit impliziert, dass eine Rivalität zwischen den beiden Formen von Gerechtigkeit besteht und dass die Opportunitätskosten der beiden Gerechtigkeiten positiv sind; (2) negative Opportunitätskosten bei der Verwirklichung von einer Form von Gerechtigkeit dann entstehen, wenn es zwischen den beiden Gerechtigkeiten eine Begünstigung gibt, die nur dann zustande kommt, wenn die Instrumente der Gerechtigkeit ineffizient verwendet werden; (3) die Opportunitätskosten zur Verwirklichung einer Form von Gerechtigkeit gleich Null sind, wenn die beiden Gerechtigkeiten unabhängig voneinander sind, was im Inneren der Möglichkeitenmenge der Fall ist, wo Instrumente der Gerechtigkeit ineffizient eingesetzt werden

The Justice Dimension of Sustainability: A Systematic and General Conceptual Framework

We discuss how the normative dimension of sustainability can be captured in terms of justice. We (i) identify the core characteristics of the concept of sustainability and discuss underlying ethical, ontological and epistemological assumptions; (ii) introduce a general conceptual structure of justice for the analysis and comparison of different conceptions of justice; and (iii) employ this conceptual structure to determine the specific characteristics and challenges of justice in the context of sustainability. We demonstrate that sustainability raises specific and partly new challenges of justice regarding the community of justice, the judicandum, the informational base, the principles, and the instruments of justice