Environmental economics and ecological economics: Where they can converge?

Article history: Received 7 March 2005 Received in revised form 5 May 2006 Accepted 26 May 2006 Available online 7 July 2006 Environmental economics and ecological economics share the common objective of understanding the human–economy–environment interaction in order to redirect the economies towards sustainability. In pursuing this objective, these two perspectives utilise different types of analytical framework and are opposed to each other on many of the fundamental theoretical and methodological issues. While the environmental economics has progressedwithin a narrowly, but sharply, focused neoclassical analytical approach, the ecological economics has expanded by adopting a ‘diversified approach’, which led to widen the gap between the two. This article makes an attempt to highlight the divergence between these two perspectives on different issues and identifies certain research avenues that would potentially bring convergence between these two perspectives. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.