ABSTRACT
Daly makes a clear distinction between growth and development. ‘Simply put, growth is quantitative increase in physical dimensions; development is qualitative improvement in non-physical characteristics.’ Growth, he says, becomes uneconomic when its benefits at the margin are outweighed by its costs.
On three occasions Daly wrote detailed accounts of what’s wrong with economic growth. All three accounts are comprehensive, but they differ in their orientation and emphasis. All are instructive. In the first one Daly describes fallacious aspects of different views about the feasibility and desirability of economic growth. In the second he frames his criticism of growth in terms of its biophysical and ethicosocial limits, and in the third he addresses confusions about economic growth. To this day, many of Daly’s criticisms of economic growth have not been adequately recognised by mainstream economists. However, the growing discontent with the pursuit of economic growth seemingly as an end in itself, is increasingly being called into question due at least in part to Daly’s influence.
Daly’s critiques of economic growth are essential for understanding his motivation for his seminal work on steady-state economics and his economics for a full world.
