Looking back within a broad historical perspective, the researchers recognized that the transition to a sustainable capitalism model is a global cultural revolution. Adam Smith, in his 1759 "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"... [ view full abstract ]
Looking back within a broad historical perspective, the researchers recognized that the transition to a sustainable capitalism model is a global cultural revolution. Adam Smith, in his 1759 "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" argued that self-interest should be tempered by ethics, so that purely selfish behaviour or exploitation would be the exception rather than the rule in society. The consolidation of capitalism was characterized, though, by profit maximization and the reward of selfish behaviour. However, the capitalist model in which the ends justify the means loses momentum and values, markets, transparency, technology life cycles, long-term/short-term tensions (Elkington, 2012) emerge. Actions to minimize environment damage caused by productive activities and to reduce inequalities with respect to income and access to education and sanitation aim at addressing those socio and environmental problems (Capra, 2005). This kind of inter- and intra-generational pact, nevertheless, coexists with very human characteristics such as self-interest, greed and the wish to accumulate. This happens against the scenario of growth of corporations, capital dilution and control and divorce between ownership and management (Monks & Minow, 2004). In this sense, the present study aims at identifying the possible relationship between the Human Development Index (HDI) - used by the UN since 1990 to analyze the conditions of development and human well-being -, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) - a Yale University project that measures the environmental performance of various countries, and the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) - created by Transparency International in 1995 it measures the perception of corruption and aims at placing this issue on the international agenda. The researchers will collect HDI, EPI and CPI data between 2005 and 2016. They will analyse each available year through regression analysis in order to assess the correlation of indexes and the existence EPI variation according to HDI and CPI values. The study will contribute to provide theoretical and empirical elements that would allow for more effective analyzes and policies for human, public as well as private environmental and institutional development.
Keywords: Human Development; Environment; Corruption.
