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Prell, Christina, Feng, Kuishuang, Sun, Laixiang, Geores, Martha and Hubacek, Klaus (2014) 'The Economic Gains and Environmental Losses of US Consumption: A World-Systems and Input-Output Approach.' Social Forces, 93 (1). pp. 405-428.

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Abstract

Although research has shown that countries’ world-systems position can predict levels of pollution and wealth, there has been little research looking at how consumption in the core triggers both pollution and wealth elsewhere in the world-economy. In this article, we track how consumption in the U.S., a core country, triggers value added and pollution throughout global commodity chains. We track these distributions for all commodities and services consumed in the U.S., then for six commodity groupings, and lastly for two case studies, these being ‘Motor Vehicles’ and ‘Wearing Apparel’. Our findings show how the production of commodities for U.S. consumption tends to reify inequalities in the world-system: larger shares of value added (in comparison to shares of pollution) are generally prompted within the core, whereas the opposite effect tends to be experienced in the non-core. We also discuss interesting exceptions to these general trends occurring at different levels of analysis. Finally, we draw special attention to China, the elephant in the room that exhibits both core and peripheral characteristics.

Item Type: Journal Article
SOAS Departments & Centres: Legacy Departments > Faculty of Law and Social Sciences > School of Finance and Management
ISSN: 00377732
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sou048
Date Deposited: 23 May 2014 10:54
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/18471
Related URLs: http://sf.oxfor ... ontent/93/1/405 (Publisher URL)

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