Energy and the Wealth of Nations Understanding the Biophysical Econo
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
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Charles A.S. Hall • Kent A. Klitgaard
Energy and the Wealth of Nations Understanding the Biophysical Economy
Charles A.S. Hall Professor of Systems Ecology Faculty of Environmental & Forest Biology and Graduate Program in Environmental Science College of Environmental Science & Forestry, State University of New York Syracuse, NY 13210, USA [email protected]
Kent A. Klitgaard Professor of Economics Patti McGill Peterson Professor of Social Sciences, Wells College Aurora, NY 13026, USA [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4419-9397-7 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-9398-4 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9398-4 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011938144 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
To Myrna, my wonderful companion on this and other journeys – Charles A.S. Hall To my children, Justin and Juliana Klitgaard-Ellis, in hopes that the information contained herein can make their world a little better place in which to live, and to Deb, who gives my life meaning. – Kent A. Klitgaard
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Preface
There are four books on our shelves entitled, more or less, “wealth of nations.” They are Adam Smith’s 1776 pioneering work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, and three of recent vintage: David Landes’ Wealth and Poverty of Nations, David Warsh’s Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations, and Eric Beinhocker’s The Origin of Wealth. Warsh’s book is rather supportive of current approaches to economics whereas Beinhocker’s is critical, but all of these titles attempt to explain, in various ways, the origin of wealth and propose how it might be increased. Curiously, none have the word “energy” or “oil” in their glossary (one trivial exception), and none even have the words “natural resources.” Adam Smith might be excused given that, in 1776, there was essentially no developed science about what energy was or how it affected other things. In an age when some 70 million barrels of oil are used daily on a global basis, however, and when any time the price of oil goes up a recession follows, how can someone write a book about economics without mentioning energy? How can economists ignore what might be the most important issue in economics? I
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