Ecological Money: History, Theory and Development - Yonghyup Oh

This book explores the development of the ecological monetary paradigm in which money is created for the restoration and improvement of the Earth’s ecology in a way that simultaneously address environmental and human wellbeing issues. Ecological money is created via facilities of monetization and proliferated by the pricing of products.

The book, however, postulates that the development of an ecological monetary paradigm is hampered by a trilemma between inflation, the expenditure needed to mitigate ecological and climate crises, and the profit-making behaviour of enterprises. Namely, undertaking such massive expenditure would increase cost-push inflation whilst, simultaneously, the refusal of enterprises to compromise on their profit-making would lead to profit-led inflation remaining intact if not strengthened. The book identifies the causes of the trilemma and calls for an emergence of new enterprises that would help mitigate the trilemma. The categories of such enterprises are derived, and the examples of enterprises that would satisfy these criteria are illustrated.

This book will interest any reader working in ecological, environmental and sustainable development topics. It will also appeal to those working on ecological macroeconomics, monetary theory and policy, valuation of firms, and the history of economic thought.