Abstract:

The Nicholas Kaldor’s Square is used in macroeconomics courses to facilitate the analysis of the economic situation of a country at a given time. Traditionally, it allows the visualization of four independent variables that are plotted together simulating a Cartesian axis. This didactic methodology is versatile and can be adapted to different analysis environments.

This paper presents a new approach to Kaldor's Macroeconomic Square methodology adapted to the analysis of key performance indicators in the classroom. These indicators are integrated to provide a context of sustainability in the companies of a productive sector. The selected indicators represent the sustainability context and are categorized according to the three components of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), environmental, economic and social. This methodology allows students to integrate business indicators of different nature in a single graph, facilitating the analysis and interpretation of results. The data provided to the students correspond to companies producing fluid milk in the artisanal production range. The indicators associated with the environmental component were energy consumption (KWh) and the generation of greenhouse gases (Kg CO2 equivalent). With respect to the economic component, the quantification of the physical losses generated in the value chain (USD) was chosen, and finally, with respect to the social aspect, the percentage of personnel trained in Good Manufacturing Practices was adopted. The environmental and economic indicators should be homogenized according to production volume. The different configurations of the polygon obtained allow students to interpret the company's sustainability situation. With a wider range of data, the students could observe the company's evolution over time or compare different companies in the same or different economic sectors.

Keywords:

Kaldor’s square, key performance indicators, environmental economics, sustainability.