Title: The Sustainable Net Domestic Product of Cambodia, 1988–2004

Authors: Nyda Chhinh, Philip Lawn

Addresses: Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Room 112, RUPP Main Building, Russian Confederation Blvd., Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ' Faculty of Social Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia

Abstract: In the tradition of Hicks (1946), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an inadequate measure of national income insofar as it includes, as current income, the depletion of income-generating capital. Using an alternative measure of Hicksian national income called Sustainable Net Domestic Product (SNDP) (Daly, 1996), it is shown that, for the period 1988–2004, Cambodia|s SNDP was lower than its GDP. More crucially, the disparity between the two indicators increased from 715 billion riels in 1988 to 4,186 billion riels by 2004 – effectively a six-fold increase in the gap over the study period. From a per capita perspective, there was a sharp decline in the per capita SNDP in 1995. Whereas Cambodia|s per capita real GDP rose significantly between 1998 and the end of the study period, its per capita SNDP suffered a marked downturn in 2001 and 2002. Overall, the per capita GDP growth spurt between 1988 and 2004 did not genuinely equate to a similar increase in sustainable per capita income and that, relative to the early part of the study period, Cambodia|s much higher per capita level of GDP after 2001 was fuelled by an increased consumption of income-generating capital, in particular, of its forestry and fishery assets.

Keywords: Cambodia; Hicksian income; income-generating capital; Sustainable Net Domestic Product; SNDP; NDP; national income; forestry assets; fishery assets.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWE.2007.017881

International Journal of Environment, Workplace and Employment, 2007 Vol.3 No.2, pp.154 - 174

Published online: 20 Apr 2008 *

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