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1999'dan bu yana, Dünya Bankası ve Uluslararası Para Fonu'nun müşterek çabasıyla aşırı borçlu fakir ülkelerin imtiyazlı borçlar ve borç yükü indirimine ulaşmalarına yardım etmek için Yoksulluğu Azaltma Strateji Belgeleri (YASB) yayınlanmaktadır. Strateji belgelerinin hazırlanmasında hükümetin ve bütün paydaşların katılımı beklenmektedir. Bu tezde, YASB'lerin Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Hedefleriyle uyumunun değerlendirilmesi hedeflenmektedir. İçerik analizi kullanılarak, Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Hedefleri (SKH) perspektifinden YASB'lerin içeriğinin zamanla iyileşip iyileşmediği araştırılmaktadır. 1999 ve 2016 yılları arasında Sahra Altı Afrika'nın 33 ülkesinin nihai YASB'leri bir kontrol listesine göre incelenmiştir. Kontrol listesi SKH'lerinden oluşturulmuş ve YASB'lerini incelemek için 82 farklı politikası dikkate alınmıştır. Ek olarak, bu çalışma SKH'lerin kapsamlı bir gözden geçirmesini de sunmaktadır. Çalışmanın bulguları SKH'lere bağlılığın zamanla arttığını göstermiştir. Ayrıca, çalışma sürdürülebilir kalkınma, iklim değişimi, okyanusların sürdürülebilir kullanımı, sürdürülebilir kalkınma için küresel ortaklık ve sürdürülebilir enerji gibi yeni konuların strateji belgelerinde yetersiz olarak yer aldığını açığa çıkarmıştır. Gelecekte, Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Hedeflerinin ülkelerin kalkınma hedeflerini gerçekleştirmesi için bir ivme yaratacağı ve ülkelerin yaşam kalitelerini çevreye zarar vermeden iyileştireceği beklenmektedir. Anahtar Sözcükler: Yoksulluğu Azaltma Strateji Belgeleri, Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Hedefleri, Sahra Altı Afrika, Uyum İndeksi, İçerik Analizi, Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma. Since 1999, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have been introduced as a collective effort of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the heavily indebted poor countries to access the concessional loans and debt relief. The strategy papers are expected to be prepared by government with participation of all stakeholders. In this thesis, it is aimed to evaluate the PRSPs alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. Using content analysis, it is attempted to find that whether the scope of the PRSPs is increasing or decreasing through time from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) perspective. The full PRSPs, published between 1999-2016, of the 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are assessed according to a checklist. The checklist is created from SDGs, and 82 different policies were taken into account to evaluate the PRSPs. In addition, this study provides a comprehensive review of SDGs. The results of the study show that the degree of commitment to SDGs increases with time. Also, the study reveal that new issues such as sustainable production, climate change, sustainable use of oceans, global partnership for sustainable development and sustainable energy take part in the strategy papers inadequately. In the future, it is expected that the SDGs create a momentum for countries to fulfill their developmental goals and help countries to ameliorate their quality of life without damaging the environment. Key Words: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Sustainable Development Goals, Sub-Saharan Africa, Alignment Index, Content Analysis, Sustainable Development . 126

One of the major challenges facing global society today is the provision of food, water, energy, healthcare and other resources & services in a world characterised by increasing population, mounting environmental stresses and rising inequality. There is a need for circular and resilient food systems which close material flow loops in the entire supply chain from farm ers to consumers and back. This should be done in a resource-efficient manner that includes all relevant actors. This position paper summarises insights by Hans van Meijl, Stijn Reinhard and Ruerd Ruben from Wageningen Economic Research into what has been dubbed the inclusive and sustainable economy. Therefore, five overarching challenges, five scoping issues, and five beneficial economic principles are discussed. In addition, the authors formulate five key insights regarding feasible policy strategies and attempt to contribute to the analysis of leverage points relevant to upscaling and to anchoring market innovations that sustain sustainable and inclusive agri-food systems.

The coordinated development of the economy, resources, and environment is a key aspect of sustainable development. China’s rapid agricultural modernization has been accompanied by the continuous growth of rural economic aggregate and carbon emissions from the planting industry. However, the quantitative relationship between these two factors and its internal mechanism are not yet fully understood. In this paper, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method is used to calculate the carbon emissions of the planting industry in China from 1998–2019. Based on this, the Tapio decoupling analysis model was constructed to study the decoupling relationship between economic development and carbon emissions of the planting industry in China from 1998–2019 and the associated spatial and temporal evolution patterns. The effect of the complete decomposition model (without residuals), in terms of carbon emissions from the planting industry, on the process of economic development and its transmission mechanism are introduced. The results show that: (1) The carbon emissions of the planting industry in China increased with the economic development occurring from 1998–2005, where agricultural economic development was highly dependent on resource factors and the environment. The growth trend of carbon emissions of the planting industry slowed from 2006 to 2019, while economic development has gradually realized the decoupling of carbon emissions from the planting industry. (2) From 1998–2019, in Heilongjiang, Sichuan, and Hunan, the economic development was given priority, showing strong and negative decoupling with carbon emissions from farming. The economic development in most regions were given priority, showing strong decoupling with carbon emissions from farming. Up to 2019, decoupling was observed with a significant trend of spatial agglomeration. (3) Economic scale effects had a positive influence on the carbon emissions of the planting industry, while the technology effect and population effect had an inhibiting influence on the carbon emissions of the planting industry. The key policy implication of this paper is that improvement of the quality of economic development serves as the premise for the transformation of the economic development mode. It is necessary to reasonably regulate the economic growth rate and expansion scale, reduce resource consumption and pollutant emission technology, and to make full use of resources, in order to provide a basis for the formulation of reasonable emission reduction policies. An effective way to realize the sustainable development of the agricultural economy would be to improve the technical efficiency, control the population scale appropriately, and optimize the agricultural industrial structure.

Background The progress of green credit in China is accelerating, but its development is uneven and insufficient in different regions. And whether the issuance of green credit can effectively promote the improvement of the environment and economy is not well understood. Objective Previous research has found that green credit promotes economic growth through improvement of the industrial structure and green technological innovation. However, these studies have not considered the positive externality of environmental improvement even though environmental improvement and economic growth are requirements of the sustainable development concept. Methods We use the chain-mediated model to estimate the impact of green credit issuance on the economic growth of different provinces since the large-scale implementation of green credit in China with data from 2008 to 2016. Results and conclusion This paper shows that the issuance of green credit can improve labor supply rather than labor productivity through the improvement of air quality to achieve regional economic growth. Such a chain-mediated path is different from the economic growth caused by industrial structural adjustment and green technology innovation. At the national level, every 1% increase in green credit issuance relative to industrial loans will increase the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) by approximately 4.6 yuan, or 0.012%, through air quality and labor supply, accounting for 2.875% of the total effect. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that due to regional industrial structure differences and diminishing marginal effects, the impact of green credit is stronger in the western region than in the eastern and central regions. For every 1% increase in the proportion of green credit issuance relative to industrial loans, the per capita GDP growth achieved through the chain-mediated path is approximately 30.17 yuan in the western region, approximately 6.6 times greater than that at the national level. Within a 95% confidence interval of 5000 bootstrap samples, this path is found to be true, and the chain-mediated effect accounts for approximately 12.96% of the total indirect effect. Limitations The limitation of this paper is the measurement of green credit. Although green credit has a large volume, it remains underdeveloped, and there is a lack of perfect indicators. Most existing studies have adopted only alternative or reverse indicators to measure the issuance of green credit. For example, this paper takes the interest expenditure of six high-energy-consuming enterprises as the reverse indicator, which may to a certain extent lead to the overestimation of the issuance of green credit and its impact on the environment and economy. Future research can accurately explore the performance of green credit on the basis of its mature development.

This paper sets out to contribute to the literature by investigating the institutional arrangements facing investors in Russia, the extent to which they had been reformed, and the resultant impact on the willingness of foreign-owned TNCs to commit inbound foreign direct investment (IFDI) to this high-risk transition economy. The degree to which institutional factors explain Russia's persistent underperformance in terms of IFDI is assessed through the review of the academic literature and other documentary sources. Making use of the Corruption Perception Index, Ease of Doing Business, World Governance Indicators and Index of Economic Freedom (IEF) data, we analyse the provenance of Russia’s IFDI-related institutional reforms since the late nineteen nineties until the end of 2013. Given the international isolation of Russia after its annexation of the Crimea and the collapse of the oil price, the paper argues that in order to achieve a sustainable economic development, the Russian government must implement substantial shifts in the design and functioning of its national institutions.

Since we introduced the term “middle-income trap” in 2006, it has become popular among policy makers and researchers. In May 2015, a search of Google Scholar returned more than 3,000 articles including the term and about 300 articles with the term in the title. This paper provides a (non-exhaustive) survey of this literature. The paper then discusses what, in retrospect, we missed when we coined the term. Today, based on developments in East Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe during the past decade, we would have paid more attention to demographic factors, entrepreneurship, and external institutional anchors. We would also make it clearer that to us, the term was as much the absence of a satisfactory theory that could inform development policy in middle-income economies as the articulation of a development phenomenon. Three-quarters of the people in the world now live in middle-income economies, but economists have yet to provide a reliable theory of growth to help policy makers navigate the transition from middle- to high-income status. Hybrids of the Solow-Swan and Lucas-Romer models are not unhelpful, but they are poor substitutes for a well-constructed growth framework.

Land and property rights, migration, and citizenship are complex issues that cut across all social, economic, and political spheres of West Africa. This paper provides an overarching scoping of the most pressing contemporary issues related to land, migration, and citizenship, including how they intersect in various contexts and locations in West Africa. The way issues are analytically framed captures structural challenges and sets them against the regional and global meta-trends of which policy makers and practitioners should be aware for conflict-sensitive planning. The paper points to some of the effective practices in managing and mitigating these issues and also raises several questions on areas for future research. Part one lays out the migratory context in West Africa. It points to the type, nature, and extent of mobility that characterizes the region. Part two sets out West Africa’s land tenure and management systems, including structural challenges, general management policies, and key issues related to land tenure and migrants. Part three frames the key land and migration meta-trends in the context of fragility. Part four concludes with an overall exploration of the paper’s results and puts forward a series of research questions that are necessary in order to discern the most effective and realistic operational approaches.

The purpose of this paper is a multidimensional assessment of the diversification of economic development in EU countries in the context of the progress in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development in 2014 and 2019. The issues discussed in this article are topical and important, given that the spatial disparity of economic development in the EU has never been so pronounced as it is today. While there is a wealth of studies on economic development in the literature, research on the comprehensive approach to this problem in the relation of sustainable development appears to be rather scarce. The article emphasizes the role of energy in economic growth. Authors used taxonomic measures. They were constructed on the basis of selected methods of multidimensional comparative analysis. By using the Hellwig method and the TOPSIS method, taxonomic measures were constructed, and linear ordering of the EU countries was carried out. In addition, using the so-called threshold method, the clustering of EU countries was carried out. The analysis involved 27 EU countries. The conducted research revealed significant disproportions between the respective EU countries in terms of the level of economic development in the relation of implementing the concept of sustainable development. It seems justified to take action aimed at eliminating the differences between the countries in the analyzed aspect. It is necessary both to intensify efforts at the level of individual Member States and the EU, oriented towards pro-development activities.

This study analyzes how the three pillars of sustainable development (economic growth, social justice, and environmental protection) have influenced each other for the past twenty-six years (from 1987 to 2013). The relationship between the triangular pillar of SD can be characterized by “ecological modernization”, “eco-socialism”, and the traditional debate between growth and distribution. This paper examined the correlation analysis of the nine representative variables in the three categories, adopting the cases of twenty-six OECD countries. In particular, the panel analysis (PCSE models) was conducted to identify the seven independent determinants affecting both response (dependent) variables and environmental factors (“CO2 emissions” and “renewable electricity output”). In short, during the entire period, the findings reveal that all economic and social variables did not have a positive impact on reducing CO2 emissions. However, the variables of “employment in industry” and “social expenditure” are effected by the increase of renewable electricity output. Consequently, highlighting the detailed findings different for each set period (1987–2013, 1987–2002, and 2003–2013), this study suggests the implications of the analysis result in the light of the theories of ecological modernization and eco-socialism.

Deeply investigating the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), fiscal expenditure and green total-factor productivity (GTFP) is beneficial to formulating effective policies to promote the high-quality development in China. Based on theoretical mechanism analysis, with panel data of China’s mainland 30 provinces during 2003–2017, this paper utilizes spatial econometric model to empirically explore the effects of FDI, fiscal expenditure and their interaction item on the growth of GTFP in China. The results show that FDI significantly promote the growth of the local and its neighboring GTFP, and both fiscal expenditure and the interaction between FDI and fiscal expenditure exert significantly negative effects on the growth of GTFP in the local and its neighboring regions. A series of robustness checks and the endogeneity test can ensure the reliability of these results. In addition, great heterogeneity can be found across China’s different regions in the relationship between FDI, fiscal expenditure and GTFP. The conclusions suggest that it is necessary to give fully play to the synergy between FDI and fiscal expenditure and formulate regionally targeted policies to improve GTFP and promote high-quality development in China.

The spatial agglomeration of capital factors has become an important force affecting regional economic development and industrial structure. Investigating the spatial relationship of capital factor agglomeration is a key way to accelerate the upgrading of urban industrial structure and realize sustainable development. Based on the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2008 to 2017, we use the theoretical framework of spatial econometrics and estimate the spatial effects of capital factor agglomeration on the upgrading of urban industrial structure. Both the global Moran index and the local Moran scatter chart present that the agglomeration of capital factors and the upgrading index of urban industrial structure shows the characteristics of spatial agglomeration. The results reveal that the agglomeration of capital factors can significantly promote the upgrading of the industrial structure of local and surrounding cities. Still, the spatial spillover effect is not significant. We then explore the possible factors that limit the spatial spillover effects of capital agglomeration. Using the results of the paper, we provide policy suggestions for strengthening urban industrial construction and optimizing the urban governance model.

The paper assesses the interconnections between FDI and human capital development in Nigeria over the period 1981–2018. The analysis is carried out with the use of both non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and linear ARDL bounds test approach to cointegration, and VECM Granger causality technique. Findings reveal that the effect of FDI on human capital is found to be insignificant in the long run, while it is significant in the short run. However, following the asymmetric link, the empirical evidence reveals that a rise in FDI inflows to a certain rate, in the long-run, could result in a significant increase in the level of human capital development, suggesting that the magnitude of inward FDI matters in the economy. This further implies that as FDI inflows require sound technical know-how, and more skilled labour to work with or adapt to more advanced technologies, such could draw attention to improved human capital. Results also indicate that there is unidirectional causality between FDI and human capital in the long run, which runs from human capital to FDI, suggesting that the quality of human capital matters for sustainable leverage and attractiveness of FDI inflows. By implication, it is critical to adopt policy measures that could engender the sustainable development of human capital by the government, while the underlying structural bottlenecks and protracted state of insecurity that could deter foreign investors are accorded significant attention.

The availability of sufficient and trustworthy energy services at the reasonable cost in a securely and environmentally friendly manner, and conventionality with economic and social development requirements, is an important factor of sustainable development (SD). Energy plays a significant role in eliminating poverty and increasing living standards. However, most of the present energy forms of energy supply and consumption are unsustainable. This paper analyzes the association between economic growth (EG), energy consumption (EC), and sustainable development (SD) among other economic factors. The sample of 14 developed and developing member states of the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM) was selected. To deal with the endogeneity issue, the system- generalized method of moment (GMM) model was employed. Moreover, panel co-integration, Granger causality tests, and robustness tests were employed to examine the long-run and short-run causality among variables of interest. The results confirmed the short-run dynamic association from sustainable development (SD) to energy consumption (EC), and economic growth (EG) to sustainable development (SD). Moreover, the results validated the presence of long-run equilibrium association in the equations of EC and sustainable development (SD). The findings of this study will be supportive for the policymakers to formulate sustainable energy policies to stimulate the economic growth (EG) in the way of sustainable development (SD) in the UFM countries.

The relationships between spatial production, urbanization and sustainable development are becoming a focus of the international academic cycle. Urbanization dominated by spatial production driven by capital and power often produces and enlarges uneven development, which leads to multiple eco-environmental problems. Thus, the key to development lies in whether the pattern of urbanization is in harmony with the ecological environment. However, previous researches mainly concentrate on spatial production in developed countries or regions. The urbanization and sustainable development of less-developed regions, with complex and fragile ecological environments, are often overlooked. It is a new idea to explain the relationships and interactions between spatial production, urbanization and sustainable development based on less-developed regions by the theory of spatial production. The paper chooses the Hexi Corridor as a typical case, puts forward a conceptual framework and explores the process of spatial production from 2000 to 2017. The results reveal that urbanization in the Hexi Corridor is a multidimensional socio-spatial process: power and capital gave birth to a higher urbanization and accelerated the process of urbanization, however, the urban-rural gap between regions has not narrowed accordingly. Driven by comprehensive interests, local governments often take some extreme measures to forcefully promote the urbanization process, thereby violating the goals and requirements of sustainable development. At present, there is an urgent need to coordinate the relationship between urban and rural regions on different scales and transform the urbanization model from traditional spatial production to a new-type of urbanization with people-oriented and sustainable development.

The need has arisen to implement a circular economic model that enables economic growth and prosperity in accordance with environmental protection and sustainable development because of the current unsustainable linear means of production in the economy. The aim of this paper is to determine the application of the circular economy concept in member countries of the European Union from 2008 to 2016. The purpose is to analyse whether economic development measured by GDP (gross domestic product) affects the analysed circular economy variables. Based on the hypotheses set, an econometric model was formed where GDP was identified as an independent variable, while the dependent variables were the production of municipal waste per capita, the recycling rate of municipal waste, the recycling rate of packaging waste by type of packaging, the recycling of bio-waste, and the recycling rate of e-waste. The first part of the statistical analysis conducted using the Stata software package shows the Pearson correlation between the abovestated variables, while the second part explores the univariate regression model. The results point towards the conclusion that the application of the circular economy concept can ensure economic growth and GDP growth while reducing the use of natural resources and ensuring greater environmental protection.

Green innovation is an important driving force to promote the sustainable development of urban society and economy. This paper constructs an evaluation index system containing social undesirable outputs, and uses the Super-SBM model and the Malmquist-Luenberger index to evaluate green innovation efficiency in 42 cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2013 to 2017. Additionally, spatial autocorrelation analysis is used to study the spatial correlation of green innovation efficiency. Finally, the coupling coordination degree model is used to study the coupling coordination degree between green innovation efficiency and high-tech industries. The following results were obtained. (1) The average value of green innovation efficiency increased from 1.0446 to 1.0987, and the annual average growth rate of total factor productivity of green innovation was 1.1%. (2) Green innovation efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt had a significant spatial positive correlation, but the types of agglomeration among cities in different sections of the Yangtze River were quite different. (3) The coupling coordination degree between green innovation efficiency and the development level of high-tech industries in the cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was in the basic coordination stage. Based on the research results, we suggest that cities in this belt further enhance the interactive relationship between green innovation and economic development and promote the coordinated development of economy and society.

The main aim of the paper is to assess the impact of fix capital, energy use and domestic material consumption in changing the inland Romanian economic paradigm, from an economic perspective, using the intensive form of the Cobb-Douglas function. In order to identify various connections of economic growth, sustainable development, energy usage has determined the application of the vector error correction (VEC) model and the implied error correction term (ECT). This method was chosen based on the premise that it has a high degree of applicability and it can be used in order to revile significant aspects terms of indicator significance and displays. The results obtained during the research confirm that both in Romania and at EU-28 level there are determinant and significant elements shaping a proactive economic policy.

This paper investigates the international trade role in economic development and sustainability. Specifically, a trade agreement is one of the most popular ways for a country to participate in trade, therefore we aim to estimate the relationship between a free trade agreement (FTA) and economic development on a country level, using the North American Free Trade Agreement as an example. Sustainability on an industrial level is also discussed in parallel. To achieve this, a counterfactual analysis is used to generate the welfare with and without the trade agreement to draw inference on the sustainability analysis. We find that the FTA does facilitate a country&rsquo, s sustainability. However, it is less clear on an industrial level. This finding provides important evidence relating to a country&rsquo, s sustainable development and has broadened the study scope regarding the impact of participating in an FTA with regard to economic sustainability.

In order to analyse the interaction of three components of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – they must be defined in quantitative terms. In this respect, the ecological development plays a special role, since both economic and social development goals must conform to environmental protection restrictions. The ecological development, just as the other components of sustainable development, is a complex thing that manifests itself in many different ways. The indicators that express them have various dimensions, and their manner of change can vary, i.e. one indicator rises as the situation improves while another may fall. Multi-criteria methods are well suited for the qualitative analysis of such manifestations. The goal of this paper is to perform a comprehensive analysis of Lithuania's regional economic and ecological development using the MDE method (Multi-criteria Different Evaluation), taking into account factors that both positively and negatively affect the ecological situation, and to determine the effect that economic development has on ecological development.

Special economic zones can be an effective instrument to promote industrialization if implemented properly in the right context. In China, starting in the 1980s, special economic zones were used as a testing ground for the country's transition from a planned to a market economy, and they are a prime example of China's pragmatic and experimental approach to reforms. One of the great special economic zone success stories in China is the Suzhou Industrial Park, a modern industrial township developed in the early 1990s through a Sino-Singapore partnership. It is successful not just in the economic sense, but also in terms of urban and social development in an eco-friendly way. One key lesson is that in a weak market environment, a facilitating and reform-oriented host government, coupled with foreign expertise and knowledge as well as a "whole value chain" approach can go a long way in developing urban-industry well-integrated special economic zones. This paper is intended to examine the success factors and key lessons of the Sino-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, which can be useful for other developing countries.

Situated in a fertile low-lying river delta, Bangladesh combines high vulnerability to floods, tropical cyclones, earthquakes, and climate change with one of the world’s highest population densities, with around 159 million people living in less than 150,000 sq. km. With the world’s second lowest per capita income in 1975, it was labeled ‘the test case for development’ in view of the formidable development challenges it faced. Nevertheless, Bangladesh has proven to be remarkably resilient, developing well beyond initial expectations, and has made very good progress with poverty reduction. GNI per capita has grown from around US$100 in 1972 to US$1,314 in 2015, and the country crossed the World Bank threshold for the lower-middle-income group in 2015. As highlighted in the Seventh Five Year Plan background paper on ending extreme poverty, the agricultural labor market in Bangladesh tightened significantly in the decade of 2000s, which led to an increase in the real agricultural wage rate. Three main channels were the primary contributors: (a) relocation of farm labor to rural non-farm sectors; (b) relocation of rural labor to urban activities through the ‘pull effects’ of urbanization, creating employment opportunities for the extreme poor in labor-intensive construction and transport activities; and (c) jobs for the poor created in the manufacturing sector. Robust inflows of remittances from overseas workers contributed to spurring the creation of non-farm employment opportunities in rural areas.

Purpose: This paper is part 1 of our twin articles on income reference points for Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA). Preventative costs based LCA systems, such as the EcoCost system and the Oiconomy system, need targets (performance reference points) to determine the marginal preventative costs, the costs of the most expensive measure that globally needs to be employed to reach the target. To extend the EcoCost system for social issues, targets are required for issues like fair wages and fair inequality of wages, issues for which no agreed standard, no effect level or target exists. One way of setting targets is to take best practices as benchmark, e.g. the practices of a group of best performing countries. The purpose of this part 1 article is to first develop a well-founded benchmark group of the 20 % best performing countries and thereafter propose a well-founded target for the issue of inequality for preventative costs based SLCA, which can also serve as performance reference point for SLCA in general and for other uses. In part 2, for the same purposes and using the same benchmark group, we propose targets for fair minimum wages for every country. Methods: A benchmark group of countries for the setting of targets was determined by an assessment of available country performance indicators, based on 5 criteria. Thereafter, we derived a proposal for a maximum inequality ratio based on existing democratically determined inequality ratios in the benchmark group. Results and discussion: The Sustainable Society Index–Human Wellbeing proved the best indicator for a country benchmark for preventative cost-based SLCA. Using the average of maximum democratically determined income differences in a benchmark group of countries determined by this index, a performance reference point for SLCA for the issue of fair inequality was derived and proposed, resulting in a maximum ratio of income differences for governmental institutions of 14.1, for government ruled companies of 18.3 and for industry of a factor 23.8. Conclusions: It proved possible to derive a target for maximum inequality of wages, based on democratic choices in a benchmark group of the 20 % best performing countries. The target for governmental institutions may be called objective, and proposed augmentations for government ruled companies and industry, though value choices, seem reasonable for the consumer who requires prevention of all possible harm as consequence of his purchase choices and who, as a voter, contributes to governmental standards.