Material use , index decomposition analysis , economic growth
Abstract:
The amount of materials used worldwide in production and consumption increased by 56
per cent from 1995 to 2008. Using an index decomposition analysis based on the logarithmic
mean divisia index, we investigate the drivers of material use, both on a global and a country
scale. We exploit a panel dataset of 40 countries, accounting for 75 per cent of worldwide
material extraction and 88 per cent of GDP, from 1995 to 2008. The results show that economic
growth and structural change towards material-intensive countries explain most of the
growth in global material use. Slight gains in material efficiency and falling importance of
material-intensive sectors have decelerating effects. The country-level analysis reveals substantial
heterogeneity. Some nations exhibit stable or falling material use, while it increases
notably in most countries. Improving material efficiency is able to dampen growth of material
use in important industrializing nations like China or India.
Das Dokument wird vom Publikationsserver der Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim bereitgestellt.