Skip to main content

Externalities and Sustainability Processes

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education

Synonyms

External effect; Social benefit; Social costs; Transaction spillover

Definition

Externalities may be defined as positive or negative side (external) effects of actions of one economic agent that affect the welfare of others who are not involved in these actions. These external effects are outside of the market mechanism. An externality is a cost or benefit imposed on people other than those who sell or buy the product. Negative externalities affect the welfare of current and future generations and inhibit the prospect of sustainability. Neutralization of negative externalities and creation of positive externalities are necessary conditions for achieving weak sustainability, but strong sustainability requires to conserve resources for future generations through the preservation of environmental rights.

Introduction

The importance of sustainable development has grown out of recognition that current economic activity may have important effects on future generations. Despite the...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ahlheim M (2018) Environmental economics, the bioeconomy and the role of government. In: Lewandowski I (ed) Bioeconomy. Springer, Cham, pp 317–329

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Beeks JC, Ziko A (2018) Internalizing economic externalities on the macroeconomic stage. Exploring and expanding Paul Hawken’s the ecology of commerce: a declaration of sustainability for globalized solutions. Eur J Sustain Dev Res 2(1):03

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bithas K (2011) Sustainability and externalities: is the internalization of externalities a sufficient condition for sustainability? Ecol Econ 70:1703–1706

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta PS, Ehrlich PR (2013) Pervasive externalities at the population consumption, and environment. Science 340(6130):324–328

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ding H, He M, Deng C (2014) Lifecycle approach to assessing environmental friendly product project with internalizing environmental externality. J Clean Prod 66:128–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawken P (2010) The ecology of commerce: a declaration of sustainability, 3rd edn. Harper Collins Business, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Laffont JJ (2008) Externalities. In: Palgrave Macmillan (ed) The new Palgrave dictionary of economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Nguyena TLT, Laratte B, Guillaumeb B, Huab A (2016) Quantifying environmental externalities with a view to internalizing them in the price of products, using different monetization models. Resour Conserv Recycl 109:13–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pigou AC (1920) The economics of welfare, 4th edn. Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoneham G, Eigenraam M, Ridley A, Barr N (2003) The application of sustainability concepts to Australian agriculture: an overview. Aust J Exp Agric 43:195–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tietenberg TH, Lewis L (2009) Environmental and natural resource economics Addison-Wesley series in economics. Pearson Addison Wesley, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • van den Bergh J (2010) Externality or sustainability economics? Ecol Econ 69:2047–2052

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987) Our common future. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zita Tamasauskiene .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Tamasauskiene, Z., Žičkienė, S. (2019). Externalities and Sustainability Processes. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_279-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_279-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63951-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63951-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics