Nature's Numbers: Expanding the National Economic Accounts to Include the Environment

In order to really see the forest, what's the best way to count the trees? Understanding how the economy interacts with the environment has important implications for policy, regulatory, and business decisions. How should our national economic accounts recognize the increasing interest in and importance of the environment?

Nature's Numbers responds to concerns about how the United States should make these measurements. The book recommends how to incorporate environmental and other non-market measures into the nation's income and product accounts.

The panel explores alternative approaches to environmental accounting, including those used in other countries, and addresses thorny issues such as how to measure the stocks of natural resources and how to value non-market activities and assets. Specific applications to subsoil minerals, forests, and clean air show how the general principles can be applied.

The analysis and insights provided in this book will be of interest to economists, policymakers, environmental advocates, economics faculty, businesses based on natural resources, and managers concerned with the role of the environment in our economic affairs.

• Front Matter
• Executive Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The National Income and Product Accounts: History and Application to the Environment
• 3 Accounting for Subsoil Mineral Resources
• 4 Accounting for Renewable and Environmental Resources
• 5 Overall Appraisal of Environmental Accounting in the United States
• Appendix A Sustainability and Economic Accounting
• Appendix B Sources of Physical and Valuation Data on Natural Resources and the Environment
• Appendix C Accounting for Forest Assets
• Appendix D Glossary
• Appendix E Biographical Sketches
• References
• Index