Economic de-growth vs. steady-state economy

In this review of the concepts of economic de-growth and a steady-state economy, Kerschner concludes that the concepts are in fact complements. Kerschner does note that economic de-growth and steady-state economics differ in their handling of the population issue. Whereas Herman Daly explicitly raises the role of population growth in economic growth and calls for limited birth licenses, statements on demography in the economic de-growth literature have thus far been “inconsistent and underdeveloped”. Kerschner argues that, “stabilisation or de-growth of the economy inevitably requires stabilisation or de-growth of the number of humans respectively,” and criticizes the “missing, patchy or incoherent,” treatment of the population problem by de-growth authors. (p546). Kerschner suggests that the bottom-up focus of the de-growth movement could lend a more acceptable and effective approach to the population problem than current top-down suggestions, like Daly’s limited birth licenses.