178
Next to such negative secondary consequences that were in focus in previous
work, the authors argue here that these can also be positive: the individual may like
the good feeling that e.g. the decision of “being a vegetarian for a week” trial gives
and he/she becomes fully vegetarian. Or the positive feeling of knowing to do something good for the environment leads to the decision to adopt a more sustainable
lifestyle, i.e. consumption decisions in other product categories and meeting other
human needs.
2.6 Higher Order Consequences of Economic Transactions
In addition, spending the saved money on other products means that this money is
made available to individuals in a different product’s supply chain. The net effect of
the individual’s available household income is hence not only depending on what
he/she spends it, but also on the net change in impacts due to changed consumption
depending on where the money that is being spent is going: buying a banana from
Gran Canaria will – next to the local retailer – bring income to the wholesale/
importer and the Spanish farmer. Buying it from Costa Rica will bring the income
to people in different countries and cultures. The spending of additional income can
be expected to differ between cultures, age classes, education levels, and between
different income groups. If we however assume for simplification that the consumption profile of the different supply-chains do not differ from each other, the secondary consequence in the supply-chain is zero and the net effect is exclusively the
extra consumption by the consumer.
5
2.7 Towards a New Measure of the Environmental Life Cycle
Performance of Products from Consumption Perspective
The fact that “money is conserved”, as e.g. Dragulescu and Yakovenko (2000) highlight, makes it distinct from the other household resources. Saved time, as example,
is actually net extra time available for activities and not handed over to the producers of the purchased products, in contrast to the situation for money that is merely
transferred when purchasing a product.
6
5 This does not yet consider that personal and corporate taxes modify the available income for
consumption in the supply-chains. Still, if we assume that the taxes are used for purchase or investment by the governments, the money is still used for consumption, albeit with an again different
consumption profile.
6 Note that also saving money in a bank account means consumption, as it allows other economic
actors to take a loan and invest, same as buying on credit by the consumer. The only way to avoid
that available household income is available for consumption, is to keep it at home (while that may
mean that it marginally affects inflation).
M.-A. Wolf and K. Chomkhamsri
Next to such negative secondary consequences that were in focus in previous
work, the authors argue here that these can also be positive: the individual may like
the good feeling that e.g. the decision of “being a vegetarian for a week” trial gives
and he/she becomes fully vegetarian. Or the positive feeling of knowing to do something good for the environment leads to the decision to adopt a more sustainable
lifestyle, i.e. consumption decisions in other product categories and meeting other
human needs.
2.6 Higher Order Consequences of Economic Transactions
In addition, spending the saved money on other products means that this money is
made available to individuals in a different product’s supply chain. The net effect of
the individual’s available household income is hence not only depending on what
he/she spends it, but also on the net change in impacts due to changed consumption
depending on where the money that is being spent is going: buying a banana from
Gran Canaria will – next to the local retailer – bring income to the wholesale/
importer and the Spanish farmer. Buying it from Costa Rica will bring the income
to people in different countries and cultures. The spending of additional income can
be expected to differ between cultures, age classes, education levels, and between
different income groups. If we however assume for simplification that the consumption profile of the different supply-chains do not differ from each other, the secondary consequence in the supply-chain is zero and the net effect is exclusively the
extra consumption by the consumer.
5
2.7 Towards a New Measure of the Environmental Life Cycle
Performance of Products from Consumption Perspective
The fact that “money is conserved”, as e.g. Dragulescu and Yakovenko (2000) highlight, makes it distinct from the other household resources. Saved time, as example,
is actually net extra time available for activities and not handed over to the producers of the purchased products, in contrast to the situation for money that is merely
transferred when purchasing a product.
6
5 This does not yet consider that personal and corporate taxes modify the available income for
consumption in the supply-chains. Still, if we assume that the taxes are used for purchase or investment by the governments, the money is still used for consumption, albeit with an again different
consumption profile.
6 Note that also saving money in a bank account means consumption, as it allows other economic
actors to take a loan and invest, same as buying on credit by the consumer. The only way to avoid
that available household income is available for consumption, is to keep it at home (while that may
mean that it marginally affects inflation).
M.-A. Wolf and K. Chomkhamsri