The wealth will be the total value of all assets, including real capital, human capital and all forms of natural capital. The value will be based on the estimation of accounting prices. They are not necessarily market prices, but prices that refl ect “the importance" of the asset for future well-being.

These accounting prices will refl ect the scarcity and the substitutability of resources. The economics development is sustainable if and only if wealth is non-decreasing over time.

About Professor Mäler
Professor Karl-Göran Mäler is at Stockholm School of Economics and Director of the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm, Sweden. Prof. Mäler´s research has recently focused on sustainability indicators but also on the economics of non-linear, non-convex dynamics of ecosystems.

He received the 2002 Volvo Environment Prize together with Prof. Sir Partha Dasgupta, for their outstanding and pioneering contributions to several fi elds of environmental and resource economics. Together they have made contributions of enormous consequence for understanding the relationship between development, environment and poverty.