Theories of Social Overhead Capital (1)

公害

公共信託財産

社会的共通資本

社会的費用

Economic growth

Pollution

Public trust property

Social overhead capital

Social cost

One negative result of Japan's post-war economic growth is the contemporary serious problem of environmental destruction. In this paper, I would like to examine the previous research of Kenichi Miyamoto and Hirofumi Uzawa as a preliminary step in studying this problem. Miyamoto, whose research focuses on industrial pollution, asserts that endogenous development by local residents rather than reducing constant capital appropriation is necessary. On the other hand, Uzawa, whose research focuses on automobile pollution, claims that internal conflicts between local residents will arise, as car drivers are the cause of pollution. There is some qualitative difference between the aspects of environmental destruction the two researchers focus on, but both agree that the pursuit of profit by private capital and state organizations has destroyed the living environment of local residents. Today, as well as industrial and automobile pollution, consumer activity is leading to other types of damage, such as waste pollution. What has happened is that local residents are both perpetrators and victims of pollution. In this situation, the work of both researchers is significant in making proposals for ways in which local residents can construct their own living environment.