Abstract
Due to globalization, entrepreneurship has become fundamental for the competitiveness of countries, and as shown by the Triple Helix Framework enterprises, universities and governments must create synergies to their mutual advantage. In Kazakhstan, a Post-Soviet transition economy, gross domestic product has doubled over the past decade thanks to the extractive and heavy industries and on an intensive use of electricity produced from coal. The authors present a goal programming model for environmental policy analysis involving criteria such as economic development, electricity consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and the total number of employees to determine the optimal labour allocation across different economic sectors. The purpose is to provide empirical evidence and policy recommendations to decision makers in developing the optimal strategy able to simultaneously satisfy energy demand, decrease GHG emissions, increase economic growth, and foster labour development by 2050. The analysis will allow to compare Kazakhstan with similar economies.
TopBackground: Moving Towards Green Economy: A Multi-Criteria Challenge
Since Schumpeter’s (1943) seminal contribution, researchers have found that entrepreneurship is associated with varying levels of economic development (Carree, Van Stel, Thurik, & Wennekers, 2007; Wennekers, Van Wennekers, Thurik, & Reynolds, 2005), economic growth (Audretsch, Keilbach, & Lehmann, 2006; Carree & Thurik, 2003; Koellinger & Roy Thurik, 2012) and national economic competitiveness (Porter, 1990). The economic growth model developed by Schumpeter argues competition through innovation and the importance of education in ensuring economic growth, these assumptions are also supported by empirical studies (Aghion et al., 2005). Given the positive link between entrepreneurship and national economic outcomes, policymakers in the last two decades have prioritized supporting business start-ups as a means to generate innovation, employment and transform their economies and fostering collaborations between different actors (Audretsch et al., 2006, pp. 1 - 11; Shane, 2009).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Economic Growth: An increase in the total amount of goods and services produced per head of the population of a specific country over a year, it can be measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Kazakhstan: This Post-Soviet transition economy is the largest economy in Central Asia. It possesses oil reserves as well as minerals and metals. It also has considerable agricultural potential. The population is around 18 million.
Goal Programming: It is an optimization model to balance conflicting criteria. Its major strength is its simplicity and ease of use.
Triple Helix Model: This model of innovation refers to a set of interactions between academia, governments and industry to foster economic and/or social development. It has been extended to include other relevant actors (i.e., media, financial actors).
Human Capital: The stock of skills, attributes, and experiences gained by an individual viewed in terms of their value to an organization and/or country.
Sustainability: The capability to preserve natural resources in order to maintain an ecological and economic balance without adversely affecting the needs of future generations.
Multi-Criteria: In many real-world decisions, we need to take into account simultaneously different conflicting criteria.