Economic growth in a bounded ecosystem: feasible paths to a sustainable ecological economic system

In this paper, a two sector economic economic growth model with renewable natural capital is developed. The model is similar in spirit to the models of Solow (1974) and Hartwick (1977) but with a slightly di erent emphasis. Namely, address the role human behavior and culture plays in the dynamics of a human ecological economic system. The analysis of the model indicates that there are both lower and upper bounds of investment that will lead a sustainable economy as compared the existence of a minimum level of investment that will guarantee constant consumption in the face of dwindling resources as in the model mentioned above. The size of this window depends on culture and social organization, namely the way economic growth is managed and how the associated bene ts are distributed. The idea of \feasible investment window" brings out the important idea that there are two important issues regarding economic development: sustainability and attainability. It is one thing to envision a sustainable ecological economic system, but quite another to characterize a path that will lead to such a system. The two sector model clari es the idea of a sustainable economy, and allows the possibility of reaching one to be clearly characterized; i.e. feasible paths to a sustainable ecological economic system can be de ned in terms of physical and cultural parameters.