Determinantes del desarrollo sostenible en Ecuador (1992-2016).

Abstract

What is "development"? Initially, development was considered to be just economic growth. However, as said economic growth had to provide qualitative leaps translated into social well-being, development had to be defined as something socio-economic. But the latter could not be considered enough either, since the production of different goods and services uses natural resources, which are limited. Thus, at the end of the 20th century and given that infinite levels of development could no longer be assumed, the concept of sustainable development was born, implying that the economic, social, and environmental dimensions are interdependent. Thus, addressing econometrically the Ecuadorian case, this study uses observations from the period 1992-2016 and considers the Adjusted Net Savings of Ecuador as an indicator of its achieved sustainable development. As a result, it is obtained that the Gross National Income is directly related to the levels of Adjusted Net Savings; while, the ratio of Foreign Direct Investment versus GDP, Financial Development, Household Consumption and Income from Natural Resources versus GDP, have inverse relationships. In conclusion, it is determined that, considering that without economic growth there cannot be any type of development, the key to generating Adjusted Net Savings is to increase the Gross National Income (making sure that it also provides greater social welfare), improve efficiency in the use of available monetary resources, and reducing dependence on the use of Natural Resources for the production of goods and services or economic growth.