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Author: Blair Fix
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319128264
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 129
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Book Description
Neoclassical growth theory is the dominant perspective for explaining economic growth. At its core are four implicit assumptions: 1) economic output can become decoupled from energy consumption; 2) economic distribution is unrelated to growth; 3) large institutions are not important for growth; and 4) labor force structure is not important for growth. Drawing on a wide range of data from the economic history of the United States, this book tests the validity of these assumptions and finds no empirical support. Instead, connections are found between the growth in energy consumption and such disparate phenomena as economic redistribution, corporate employment concentration, and changing labor force structure. The integration of energy into an economic growth model has the potential to offer insight into the future effects of fossil fuel depletion on key macroeconomic indicators, which is already manifested in stalled or diminished growth and escalating debt in many national economies. This book argues for an alternative, biophysical perspective to the study of growth, and presents a set of "stylized facts" that such an approach must successfully explain. Aspects of biophysical analysis are combined with differential monetary analysis to arrive at a unique empirical methodology for investigating the elements and dependencies of the economic growth process.
Author: Blair Fix
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319128264
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 129
Get Book Here
Book Description
Neoclassical growth theory is the dominant perspective for explaining economic growth. At its core are four implicit assumptions: 1) economic output can become decoupled from energy consumption; 2) economic distribution is unrelated to growth; 3) large institutions are not important for growth; and 4) labor force structure is not important for growth. Drawing on a wide range of data from the economic history of the United States, this book tests the validity of these assumptions and finds no empirical support. Instead, connections are found between the growth in energy consumption and such disparate phenomena as economic redistribution, corporate employment concentration, and changing labor force structure. The integration of energy into an economic growth model has the potential to offer insight into the future effects of fossil fuel depletion on key macroeconomic indicators, which is already manifested in stalled or diminished growth and escalating debt in many national economies. This book argues for an alternative, biophysical perspective to the study of growth, and presents a set of "stylized facts" that such an approach must successfully explain. Aspects of biophysical analysis are combined with differential monetary analysis to arrive at a unique empirical methodology for investigating the elements and dependencies of the economic growth process.
Author: Charles A.S. Hall
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319662198
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 507
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Book Description
In this updated edition of a groundbreaking text, concepts such as energy return on investment (EROI) provide powerful insights into the real balance sheets that drive our “petroleum economy.” Hall and Klitgaard explore the relation between energy and the wealth explosion of the 20th century, and the interaction of internal limits to growth found in the investment process and rising inequality with the biophysical limits posed by finite energy resources. The authors focus attention on the failure of markets to recognize or efficiently allocate diminishing resources, the economic consequences of peak oil, the high cost and relatively low EROI of finding and exploiting new oil fields, including the much ballyhooed shale plays and oil sands, and whether alternative energy technologies such as wind and solar power can meet the minimum EROI requirements needed to run society as we know it. For the past 150 years, economics has been treated as a social science in which economies are modeled as a circular flow of income between producers and consumers. In this “perpetual motion” of interactions between firms that produce and households that consume, little or no accounting is given of the flow of energy and materials from the environment and back again. In the standard economic model, energy and matter are completely recycled in these transactions, and economic activity is seemingly exempt from the Second Law of Thermodynamics. As we enter the second half of the age of oil, when energy supplies and the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption are likely to constrain economic growth, this exemption should be considered illusory at best. This book is an essential read for all scientists and economists who have recognized the urgent need for a more scientific, empirical, and unified approach to economics in an energy-constrained world, and serves as an ideal teaching text for the growing number of courses, such as the authors’ own, on the role of energy in society.
Author: Derek Bolton
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030118991
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 157
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Book Description
This open access book is a systematic update of the philosophical and scientific foundations of the biopsychosocial model of health, disease and healthcare. First proposed by George Engel 40 years ago, the Biopsychosocial Model is much cited in healthcare settings worldwide, but has been increasingly criticised for being vague, lacking in content, and in need of reworking in the light of recent developments. The book confronts the rapid changes to psychological science, neuroscience, healthcare, and philosophy that have occurred since the model was first proposed and addresses key issues such as the model’s scientific basis, clinical utility, and philosophical coherence. The authors conceptualise biology and the psychosocial as in the same ontological space, interlinked by systems of communication-based regulatory control which constitute a new kind of causation. These are distinguished from physical and chemical laws, most clearly because they can break down, thus providing the basis for difference between health and disease. This work offers an urgent update to the model’s scientific and philosophical foundations, providing a new and coherent account of causal interactions between the biological, the psychological and social.
Author: Charles A. S. Hall
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441993983
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 410
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Book Description
For the past 150 years, economics has been treated as a social science in which economies are modeled as a circular flow of income between producers and consumers. In this “perpetual motion” of interactions between firms that produce and households that consume, little or no accounting is given of the flow of energy and materials from the environment and back again. In the standard economic model, energy and matter are completely recycled in these transactions, and economic activity is seemingly exempt from the Second Law of Thermodynamics. As we enter the second half of the age of oil, and as energy supplies and the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption become major issues on the world stage, this exemption appears illusory at best. In Energy and the Wealth of Nations, concepts such as energy return on investment (EROI) provide powerful insights into the real balance sheets that drive our “petroleum economy.” Hall and Klitgaard explore the relation between energy and the wealth explosion of the 20th century, the failure of markets to recognize or efficiently allocate diminishing resources, the economic consequences of peak oil, the EROI for finding and exploiting new oil fields, and whether alternative energy technologies such as wind and solar power meet the minimum EROI requirements needed to run our society as we know it. This book is an essential read for all scientists and economists who have recognized the urgent need for a more scientific, unified approach to economics in an energy-constrained world, and serves as an ideal teaching text for the growing number of courses, such as the authors’ own, on the role of energy in society.
Author: Richard P. F. Holt
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849802084
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 338
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Book Description
This book argues that mainstream economics, with its present methodological approach, is limited in its ability to analyze and develop adequate public policy to deal with environmental problems and sustainable development. Each chapter provides major insights into many of today s environmental problems such as global warming and sustainable growth. Building on the strengths and insights of Post Keynesian and ecological economics and incorporating cutting-edge work in economic complexity, bounded rationality and socio-economic dynamics, this book provides an interdisciplinary approach to deal with a broad range of environmental concerns. The contributors show how and where the two traditions share common ground concerning environmental problems and shed light on how the two schools can learn from one another. The book will be of great value to Post Keynesian and ecological economists as well as to those interested in new approaches to important global environmental issues.
Author: Luis I. Prádanos
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1786949369
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
Postgrowth Imaginaries brings together environmental cultural studies and postgrowth economics to examine radical cultural shifts sparked by the global financial crisis. The globalization of an economic culture addicted to constant growth destroys the ecological planetary systems while failing to fulfil its social promises. A transition toward what Prádanos calls ‘postgrowth imaginaries’—the counterhegemonic cultural sensibilities that are challenging the growth paradigm—is well underway in the Iberian Peninsula today.
Author: David M. Gates
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486140792
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 642
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Book Description
This classic and highly influential text presents a uniquely comprehensive view of the field of biophysical ecology. In its analytical interpretation of the ecological responses of plants and animals to their environments, it draws upon studies of energy exchange, gas exchange, and chemical kinetics. The first four chapters offer a preliminary treatment of the applications of biophysical ecology, discussing energy and energy budgets and their applications to plants and animals, and defining radiation laws and units. Succeeding chapters concern the physical environment, covering the topics of radiation, convection, conduction, and evaporation. The spectral properties of radiation and matter are reviewed, along with the geometrical, instantaneous, daily, and annual amounts of both shortwave and longwave radiation. The book concludes with more elaborate analytical methods for the study of photosynthesis in plants and energy budgets in animals, in addition to animal and plant temperature responses. This text will prove of value to students and environmental researchers from a variety of fields, particularly ecology, agronomy, forestry, botany, and zoology.
Author: Kate Bayliss
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030541436
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
Understanding consumption requires looking at the systems by which goods and services are provided – not just how they are produced but the historically evolved structures, power relations and cultures within which they are located. The Systems of Provision approach provides an interdisciplinary framework for unpacking these complex issues. This book provides a comprehensive account of the Systems of Provision approach, setting out core concepts and theoretical origins alongside numerous case studies. The book combines fresh understandings of everyday consumption using examples from food, housing, and water, with implications for society’s major challenges, including inequality, climate change, and prospects for capitalism. Readers do not require prior knowledge across the subject matter covered but the text remains significant for accomplished researchers and policymakers, especially those interested in the messy real world realities underpinning who gets what, how, and why across public and private provision in global, national, and historical contexts.
Author: Steven M. Bartell
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1040227198
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 150
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Book Description
This book explores the concept of transforming the current macroeconomic system from one based on continuous growth that doesn’t recognize the fundamental importance of Earth's natural support structures, to a system consistent with the basic views of biophysical economics that acknowledges that all real wealth ultimately derives from planetary resources, both renewable and non-renewable. It describes how data and information collected by various institutions, government agencies, and the private sector can be integrated with existing management structures to transform the “continuous growth” economy into an economy that functions within understandable boundaries on a finite planet. Features Stimulates discussions of the feasibility of a biophysical economy. Discusses the historical developments of biophysical economics. Offers a practical approach to building a biophysical economy. Explores the human experience of living in a biophysical economy. Emphasizes the fragility of life in the Universe as we know it. This book is an excellent resource for academics and students studying sustainable development, as well as for professionals working in the private sector and public institutions with an interest in economic planning for a sustainable future.
Author: Graham Palmer
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030330931
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 186
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Book Description
Fossil fuels comprise the accumulation of prehistoric biomass that was energised by sunlight, and formed by earth system dynamics. Fossil fuels can be conceptualized as stored energy stocks that can be readily converted to power flows, on demand. A transition from a reliance on stored energy stocks, to renewable energy flows, will require a replication of energy storage by technological devices and energy conversion methods. Most analyses of energy storage focus solely on the economic-technical properties of storage within incumbent energy systems. This book broadens the scope of the study of storage by placing it within a broader, historical, biophysical framework. The role and value of storage is examined from first principles, and framed within the contemporary context of electrical grids and markets. The energy-economic cost of electrical storage may be critical to the efficacy of high penetration renewable scenarios, and understanding the costs and benefits of storage is needed for a proper assessment of storage in energy transition studies. This book provides a starting point for engineers, scientists and energy analysts for exploring the role of storage in energy transition studies, and for gaining an appreciation of the biophysical constraints of storage.
