Economics for Sustainability Science: the analysis of changes in public service provision

Economics has been criticised for failing to engage with Sustainability Science. The author suggests that these critiques mainly refer to mainstream economics. By contrast, an alternative paradigm exists which combines the analysis of socio-economic phenomena with natural science. Introduced by Nicholas Georges- cu-Roegen, the bioeconomic program represents a powerful in- strument coherent with political economy. The paper applies the Georgescu-Roegen’s analysis to the case of health care service provision in a rural area in Central Italy. The pa- per shows that the production and the consumption processes re- quire natural resources and produce pollution and wastes. Finally, the author shows that in this case the major environmental and so- cial dimensions are related to the consequences of re-centralization. This result undermines the mainstream economic analysis which usually neglects a thorough observation of externalities. The flow- fund method enhances the assessment of the environmental and so- cial aspects that play a key role in Sustainability Science.