Peter Alan Victor | Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

Professor Emeritus & Senior Scholar

Credentials

BSocSc EPS , Birmingham
PhD Economics, British Columbia

Research Keywords

Ecological Economics Environmental Policy Sustainability

Contact Information

pvictor@yorku.ca

http://www.pvictor.com/

Research Interests

I am an economist who has worked on environmental issues for over 40 years as an academic, consultant and public servant. I was one of the founders of the emerging discipline of ecological economics and was the first President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics. By extending input-output analysis, I was the first economist to apply the physical law of the conservation of matter to the empirical analysis of a national economy. My most recent books are Managing without Growth. Slower by Design, not Disaster (Edward Elgar, 2008) and The Costs of Economic Growth (ed) (Edward Elgar, 2013). Currently, I am collaborating with Prof. Tim Jackson on the development of ecological macroeconomics.

I am a Professor in Environmental Studies at York University and from 1996 to 2001 was Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies. This followed several years as Assistant Deputy Minister of the Environmental Sciences and Standards Division in the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Prior to that, I am a principal of VHB Consulting and Victor and Burrell Research and Consulting where I undertook many influential policy-related economic studies in Canada and abroad.

I have served on numerous boards and advisory committees and has appeared as an expert witness before various Commissions. Currently, I am Chair of the Greenbelt Council of Ontario, a full member of the Club of Rome, and a member of Advisory Committee on Environmental Statistics for Statistics Canada, the Academic Advisory Panel of TruCost, the Board of the David Suzuki Foundation, the Advisory Board of the New Economics Coalition, and the editorial advisory board of several academic journals.

Research Projects

2014-2020 - SSHRC Partnership Grant, Economics for the Anthropocene, Co-applicant with Ellie Perkins and Peter Brown (McGill University)

2014-2015 - The Ivey Foundation - Ecological Macroeconomics

2012-2013 - Environment Canada - Demand-Based GHG Accounting

2011-2013 CIGI-INET Grant on Green Economic Macro Model and Accounts (GEMMA) with Peter Jackson, University of Surrey

2011-2013 - Metcalf Innovation Fellowship

2010 - Santa Barbara Family Foundation - Global Initiatives Project

2009 - 2012 - SSHRC - Normative Application for Ecological Economics and the Tools for Its Assessment (co-application with Peter Brown, McGill University)

2008 - Statistics Canada - Workshop on Assessment of Ecological Footprint Methodology

2006 - Santa Barbara Foundation - Canada’s Ecological Footprint

2004 - Environment Canada - The Remediation of Hamilton Harbour, A Multi-perspective, Multi-stakeholder Approach

Research Output

2013 The Costs of Economic Growth (Ed). Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar.

2008 Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster. Northampton, MA, Edward Elgar.

Chapters in Books

2015 (with Tim Jackson) “The Trouble with Growth”, State of the World 2015, The Worldwatch Institute, Island Press, Washington.

2015 “Modeling a Low Growth Economy”, Handbook of Ecological Economics, J. Martinez-Alier (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing.

2014 “Economic Growth” in Degrowth: A vocabulary for a new paradigm, G. D’Alisa, F. Demaria, G.Kallis (eds), Routledge/Earthscan.

2013 (co-author) "Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature," Chapter XX, State of the World, Thomas Pugh (Ed.), World Resources Institute).

2013 "Managing without Growth", in Globalisation, Economic Transition, and the Environment, P. Lawn (ed), Edward Elgar Publishing

2012 “Economic Growth: Slower by Design Not Disaster”, Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, Taylor & Francis Books, NY

2012 "No Growth: Slower by Design Not Disaster", Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, Taylor and Francis Books, New York (in press)

2009 "Herman Daly and the Steady-State Economy", Festschrift for Herman Daly, edited by J. Farley.

2008 (with Gideon Rosenbluth) “Managing without Growth” in P. Lawn (ed.) Environment and Employment: A Reconciliation, Routledge.

2008 (with J.E. Hanna and A. Kubursi) "How strong is weak sustainability?" in J. Martinez-Alier and I. Ropke (eds.), Recent Developments in Ecological Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

2007 “Nature as Capital: Concerns and Considerations”, Institute for Policy Research, in A Canadian Priorities Agenda, Leonard, J., Ragan, C. and St-Hilaire, F. (eds.), The Institute for research on Public Policy, Montreal.

Articles in Refereed Journals

2015 (with T. Jackson), “Does credit create a ‘growth imperative’? A quasi- stationary economy with interest-bearing debt”, Ecological Economics, December, Vo. 120, pp. 32-48.

2015 (with T. Jackson) “Towards A Stock-Flow Consistent Ecological Macroeconomics. An overview of the FALSTAFF framework with some illustrative results”, Report for the UNEP Inquiry: Design of a Sustainable Financial System. August.

2015 T. Jackson and P. Victor “Inequality and the Limits to Growth”, Ecological Economics

2012 P. Victor, "Growth, Degrowth and Climate Change: A Scenario Analysis", Ecological Economics 84, 206-212.

2012 P.Victor and T Jackson, "A Commentary on UNEP's Green Economy Scenarios". Ecological Economics 77, 11-15.

2012 P. Victor, "Living Well:Explorations in the End of the Growth", Minding Nature, September 5:2.

2011 P. Victor and T. Jackson, "Productivity and Work in the New Economy -- Some Theoretical Reflections and Empirical Tests", Environmental Innovation and Societal Transition 1:1, 101-108.

2011 P. Victor and A.G. Hallsworth, "Canada, Britain, and the Drive to Restore Economic Growth", British Journal of Canadian Studies, 24:1, 19-29.

2010 P. Victor, "Ecological Economics and Economic Growth", Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1185: 237-245.

2007 P. Victor and G. Rosenbluth, “Managing without Growth”, Ecological Economics 61, 492-504.

2004 G. Rosenbluth and P. Victor, “The Canadian Economy with Full Employment, No Growth, No Poverty, and No Government Deficit: A Keynesian Exercise”, International Journal of Workplace and Employment, Vol. 1, No. 1.

Scholarly and Professional Publications and Reports

2013 “Living with Slow Growth”, Policy Options, March, Vol. 34, no. 5, p.14.

2013 (with R. Costanza lead author, and others), Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy in Society in Nature, Report to the United Nations for the 2012 Rio+20 Conference, Australian University Press.

2013 (with Brett Dolter) Demand-Based GHG Accounting, Environment Canada.

2012 "Envisioning a Successful Economy without Continuous Growth", Centre for Humans and Nature, http://www.humansandnature.org/economy-peter-victor-response-20.php

2012 (with Tim Jackson) "Macroeconomics for the Anthropocene" in Economics, Finance, Governance, and Ethics for the Anthropocene, A Working Paper of the Third Millennium Economy Project of the Capital Institute, June, 24-37.

2012 (with Tim Jackson) "It Isn't Easy Being Green", Human Dimensions, IHDP Magazine, Spring, 1:58-64.

2012 "Uneconomic Growth", Canadian Dimension, 5 March, 25-30.

2010 "Questioning Economic Growth", Nature, Vol. 468, 18 November, 370-371.

2009 (Contributing Author) The Planet in 2050. Based on IGBP/ESSP Exploratory Workshop in Lund/Malmo, Sweden. October 27-31, 2008.

2008 (with Ed Crummey). Statistics Canada's Ecological Footprint Workshop Final Report, March 31.

2007 (with Eric Miller) Guest Editors of Special Edition of the Journal of Bioeconomics on Ecological Economics, Vol. 9 (3).

2006 (with Ed Hanna) Benefits Assessment: Randle Reef Sediment Remediation, Environment Canada, March.

2004 (with Ed Hanna and RWDI) Estimation of the Costs and Benefits of Replacing Ontario’s Coal-Fired Generation.

2004 (with Eric Miller) Air Emissions from Ontario Power Generation, A Report for Ontario Power Generation Inc.

Papers Presented at Conferences

2014 Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster, Stockholm, 23 May

2014 Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster, Universite Paris Nord, 16 May

2014 Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster, Muskoka Summit on the Environment, 9 May

2014 The Environment and Innovation: What are the Real Costs? Five Propositions, INET Annual Conference, Toronto, 12 April

2013 "Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster", Capitalism 2.0 Conference, Schulich School of Business, 8 February.

2012 "Social Equity, Environment and Distribution", False Dichotomies Conference, CIGI, Waterloo, 17 November.

2012 "Envisioning a Successful Economy Without Continuous Economic Growth", American Museum of Natural History, New York, 9 October.

2012 "Managing Without Growth", Imagine 2012 International Conference on Cooperative Economics, Quebec City, 6 October.

2012 "Towards an Ecological Economics", Opening Plenary, Biennial Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE), Rio de Janeiro, 17 June.

2012 "GEMMA - A Progress Report", Annual Plenary Conference of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), Berlin, 14 April.

2011 "Managing without Growth", The Urban Retreat, Cape Farewell Foundation, November 10.

2011 "Beyond Growth: Some Insights from Systems Modelling", University of Sussex, 11 March, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYkLu2LGi2o.

2010 "Environmental Limits for a New Economy", New Economics Conference, NEF, London, UK, 27 October.

2010 "Managing without Growth", Growth in Transition 2010 Conference, Helsinki, 24 September.

2010 'Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster", Centre for Inquiry, Toronto, 2 July, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yorcbB7xqHs.

2010 "New (macro) models for degrowth", Stirring Paper, Second Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, Barcelona, 26-29 March.

2009 "Managing without Growth", Vienna University of Economics and Business, 11 December.

2009 "Nature Capital: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters", Science in the Changing North 2009, June 15-16, Yellowknife.

2009 Green Week Conference", European Commission, Brussels, 23-26 June.

2008 “Managing without Growth” Science and Society Conference, University of Toronto, 29 February.

2007 Comments on a paper by Nancy Olewiler, Institute for Research in Public Policy, 9 March.

2007 (with Ed Hanna), “Valuation of Ecological Goods and Services”, Eastern Ontario Model Forest Symposium.

2006 “Managing without Growth, National Conference of the Green Party of Canada, Halifax, 4th November.

2006 “Managing without Growth”, 2nd Green Energy Conference, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 27 June.

2005 “Managing without Growth”, CANSEE Biennial Conference, York University, 28 October.

2005 (with T. Koveshnikova) “Exploring Hubbert’s Peak”, Poster Presentation, CANSEE Biennial Conference, York University, 28-30 October.

2005 “Managing without Growth”, Progressive Economics Forum Macro Model Panel, Canadian Economics Association Meetings, Hamilton, Ontario 28 May.

2005 “Managing without Growth”, Are Cities Sustainable?, George Brown College, 12 April.

2004 “Managing without Growth”, invited speaker at A Future that Works- economics, employment and the environment University of Newcastle, Australia, December 10.

2004 “Economic Impacts of Invasive Species”, Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Problems Caused by Invasive Species, York University, November 8.

Recognition & Awards

Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award, The International Society for Ecological Economics
Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal
Senior Scholar, Centre for Humans and Nature
Delta Management Clean 16 Award (Education)
Metcalf Foundation Fellow
Canada Council fo the Arts Molson Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities
Toronto's Super Hero by The Torontoist
First Lifetime Member of the International Association of Environmental Testing Laboratories (Ontario)
Commonwealth Scholar
Vice-Chancellor's Prize, University of Birmingham