Overview
- Uses Jevons' multiple paradoxes to develop an economic theory appropriate to the end of the fossil fuel era
- Analyzes sustainability within the framework of Jevons‘ paradoxes
- Explains why technological solutions alone are unlikely to meet the sustainability challenge
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Energy (BRIEFSENERGY)
Part of the book sub series: Energy Analysis (ENERGYANALYS)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
In spite of this apparent contradiction, in this book biophysical economist Kent Klitgaard makes clear that there is no epistemological break between The Coal Question and Theory of Political Economy. Indeed, the Jevons paradox makes little sense in the absence of a behavioral theory grounded in marginal utility, which recognizes the satisfaction that each of us gains as consumers of one more unit of a good or service. Jevons could not solve this paradox in light of his belief that coal mines were becoming exhausted and more expensive to operate, and that there was no substitute for coal. However, he was uninterested in questions of sustainability; rather, he wanted to maintain British industrial and imperial dominance. Did the eventual substitution of oil for coal simply allow us to run through other resources at an accelerated rate? Indeed, the petroleum economy of the 20th and early 21st centuries has presented vastly expanded opportunities for the operation of the Jevons Paradox. This book shows the connections among the different paradoxes in Jevons’ work, and exposes the potentially fatal flaws that confound technological solutions to the sustainability challenge.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Kent is the co-author, in collaboration with Charlie Hall, of Energy and the Wealth of Nations, co-founder of the International Society of Biophysical Economics, and a board member of the Biophysical Economics Institute. He is the proud father of two adult children who have eschewed the corporate road to wealth in order to do good for the world.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Jevons' Paradoxes
Book Subtitle: William Stanley Jevons and the Roots of Biophysical and Neoclassical Economics
Authors: Kent Klitgaard
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Energy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93589-4
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Energy, Energy (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-93588-7Published: 18 January 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-93589-4Published: 17 January 2022
Series ISSN: 2191-5520
Series E-ISSN: 2191-5539
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 120
Number of Illustrations: 10 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: Energy Policy, Economics and Management, History of Economic Thought/Methodology, Natural Resource and Energy Economics, Sustainable Development