Im 6’5’’ tall – and glad that I’ve stopped growing. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to continue to develop, though. Maybe the simile is clumsy – but the relationship between growth and development is well worth investigating in these times of globalization, climate change, and food shortages. And here we are really talking about the question of whether ­there can be development without growth as well – or whether growth is the conditio sine qua non for progress. Sure, growth means that there is more. But more of what? If we are talking about the economy, the answer most people would give automatically would be economic growth: an increase in the gross domestic product, i.e. more goods and services. This type of growth is the Holy Grail for economic policy makers – the ultimate measure of their success. But why? Because most people automatically attribute positive characteristics to growth: growth makes us rich, growth creates employment, education and development aid can be financed through growth. And so on. Growth is on every political agenda.  

Good growth, bad growth 

But the same is now true of “sustainability”. “Sustainable development” is the buzz word, and its emergence has certainly complicated the matter of growth. You will not find a politician or a manager who does not back sustainability. If this concept is to be taken seriously, though, we are also going to have to take a look at the downside of economic growth. And to do that, the investigation of another sort of growth may in turn be useful – the growth in environmental problems, caused basically by the use of materials, energy, and space. The expansion of the economy is one of the most important driving forces of ecological problems such as climate change and the extinction of species (although not the only one). Growth doesn’t only lead to improvements, it also brings problems into the world. Anyone who wants sustainability has to keep an eye on economic growth as well as on the increase in pressures on the environment. Moreover, the assumption that an increase in income, goods, and services automatically leads to an improvement in the standard of living doesn’t hold true – at least not in the richer countries. Here it is be­coming increasingly obvious that once a certain economic level has been reached, the link breaks down as depicted in an old saying: money can’t make you happy. Or to be more exact: more money won’t make you happier. As economic happiness researchers such as Richard Layard, Bruno Frey, and Mathias Binswanger point out, happiness is determined by a whole range of factors which have nothing to do with the economy.