Economist wins Tyler Prize for showing links between poverty, sustainable development and environmental health

Sir Partha Dasgupta noted a dichotomy in how people around the globe view the current state of the world. Speaking at the Tyler Prize Laureate Lecture on April 21 on USC’s University Park campus, he described the groups of citizens who subscribe to each of “two conflicting intuitions.” 

“The first looks at the long history of humankind and there notices that over the past 200 to 250 years, momentous things have happened,” he said. “In fact, it’s not an exaggeration at all to say humanity’s never had it so good — on average. …

“On the other hand, we have ecologists and environmental scientists giving us enormous warnings about our usage of the earth system.”

He argued that taking both of these perspectives into account is crucial to the continued health of our planet and our civilization.

Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Cambridge, was named the 2016 Tyler Prize Laureate for his work in developing economic theory and tools to measure the relationships between human and environmental well-being, poverty, population, economic growth, and the state of natural resources.

He was honored during a banquet and ceremony at USC’s Town & Gown on the University Park campus on April 22.

As winner of the prize, Dasgupta received a $200,000 cash prize and a gold medallion, joining the ranks of past winners that include Jane Goodall, the world’s leading chimpanzee expert, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, and several Nobel Laureates.

“Sir Partha Dasgupta’s contributions to economics have driven fundamental and ongoing changes in the international conversation about sustainable and just development, and use of natural resources,” said Tyler Prize Executive Committee Chair Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar at Yale University.

Dasgupta’s work challenges the conventional thinking on how nations measure their well-being and places an emphasis on population and environmental sustainability.

“We have long measured the progress of nations in terms of what they produce and consume as expressed in the gross domestic product (GDP),” said Dasgupta. “We need to be working with an entirely different measure. GDP doesn’t tell us if we are growing in a way that benefits all in society, including future people; it ignores factors like inequity and whether we are using our natural resources in a way that can also benefit future generations.”

Instead, Dasgupta and his colleagues advocate that nations should measure their “inclusive wealth,” which includes not only the value of a country’s infrastructure and tools for production as well as education and health of its citizens, but also the value of natural resources.

Dasgupta serves as the Scientific Advisor to the Inclusive Wealth Project, a United Nations-sponsored initiative that seeks to measure the wealth and long-term sustainability of countries. This approach, he argues, must be put to work in global discussions around sustainability, including the recently agreed upon UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He also co-founded the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) to elevate the work of scholars from developing countries, and launched the journal Environment and Development Economics, which publishes research on poverty and environmental resources by scholars in poor countries.

“In the developed world the environment is often thought of as an amenity — is the beach polluted or is the national park a place I want to go on vacation — but most of humanity does not enjoy the environment solely as an amenity,” he said. “People in poorer countries understand this complexity, but their voices aren’t heard enough.”

About the Tyler Prize

Established in 1973 and administered by USC Dornsife, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is one of the first international premier awards for environmental science, environmental health and energy. Awarded annually, it was established by the late John and Alice Tyler in 1973 and has been presented to 70 individuals and four organizations associated with world-class environmental accomplishments.

For more information on the Tyler Prize and its recipients, go to: http://www.tylerprize.usc.edu.