IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/enreec/v11y1998i3p289-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a Disequilibrium Theory of Endogenous Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Ayres

Abstract

This paper discusses the need for a new approach to economic growth theory. The standard theory of growth-in-equilibrium driven by exogenous, uncaused, productivity gains has an implication that is both unjustified and perverse from a policy perspective: that government intervention of any kind can only introduce constraints and reduce option space, thus decreasing potential growth. It is argued that growth theory should (1) acknowledge the importance of natural resources, especially fossil fuels, as a driver of past and present economic growth, (2) incorporate an explicit recognition that growth is a consequence of technological innovation, especially radical innovation, that often responds to natural resource scarcities or other societal needs and (3) explicitly reflect the fact that the important (i.e. scarce) factors of production in economics can and do change over time, i.e. from a rural ‘cowboy’ economy of the past to an urbanized ‘spaceship’ economy of the future. In short, it should reflect the fact that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. The first and third of these modifications have been proposed before, but not in combination. The third seems to be new. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Ayres, 1998. "Towards a Disequilibrium Theory of Endogenous Economic Growth," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(3), pages 289-300, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:11:y:1998:i:3:p:289-300
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1008239127479
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1008239127479
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1008239127479?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Robert Ayres, 1994. "On economic disequilibrium and free lunch," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(5), pages 435-454, October.
    3. Heal, Geoffrey M., 1993. "The optimal use of exhaustible resources," Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, in: A. V. Kneese† & J. L. Sweeney (ed.), Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 18, pages 855-880, Elsevier.
    4. Ayres, Robert U. & Miller, Steven M., 1980. "The role of technological change," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 353-371, December.
    5. Alan Manne & Richard Richels, 1992. "Buying Greenhouse Insurance: The Economic Costs of CO2 Emission Limits," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026213280x, December.
    6. Robert M. Solow, 1974. "The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 12, pages 257-276, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Romer, Paul M, 1987. "Growth Based on Increasing Returns Due to Specialization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(2), pages 56-62, May.
    8. R. C. D'Arge & K. C. Kogiku, 1973. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(1), pages 61-77.
    9. Partha Dasgupta & Geoffrey Heal, 1974. "The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 3-28.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Coccia, Mario & Wang, Lili, 2015. "Path-breaking directions of nanotechnology-based chemotherapy and molecular cancer therapy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 155-169.
    2. Ayres, Robert U & Ayres, Leslie W & Warr, Benjamin, 2003. "Exergy, power and work in the US economy, 1900–1998," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 219-273.
    3. Pan, Haoran, 2006. "Dynamic and endogenous change of input-output structure with specific layers of technology," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 200-223, June.
    4. Sorrell, Steve, 2009. "Jevons' Paradox revisited: The evidence for backfire from improved energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1456-1469, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robinson, James A. & Srinivasan, T.N., 1993. "Long-term consequences of population growth: Technological change, natural resources, and the environment," Handbook of Population and Family Economics, in: M. R. Rosenzweig & Stark, O. (ed.), Handbook of Population and Family Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 1175-1298, Elsevier.
    2. Ayres, Robert U., 2008. "Sustainability economics: Where do we stand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 281-310, September.
    3. Ayres, Robert U, 2001. "The minimum complexity of endogenous growth models:," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 817-838.
    4. Beatriz Gaitan S. & Richard S.J. Tol & I. Hakan Yetkiner, 2006. "The Hotelling’s Rule Revisited in a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model," Papers of the Annual IUE-SUNY Cortland Conference in Economics, in: Oguz Esen & Ayla Ogus (ed.), Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources, pages 213-238, Izmir University of Economics.
    5. Simone Valente, 2005. "Sustainable Development, Renewable Resources and Technological Progress," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 30(1), pages 115-125, January.
    6. Victor Court & Pierre-André Jouvet & Frédéric Lantz, 2015. "Endogenous economic growth, EROI, and transition towards renewable energy," Working Papers 1507, Chaire Economie du climat.
    7. Pezzey, John C.V., 2004. "Exact measures of income in a hyperbolic economy," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 473-484, August.
    8. Antony, Jürgen & Klarl, Torben, 2022. "Poverty and sustainable development around the world during transition periods," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    9. Dagmar Nelissen & Till Requate, 2007. "Pollution-reducing and resource-saving technological progress," International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(1), pages 5-44.
    10. Ronald H. Schmidt, 1988. "Hotelling's rule repealed? An examination of exhaustible resource pricing," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Fall, pages 41-54.
    11. Mitra, Tapan, 2002. "Intertemporal Equity and Efficient Allocation of Resources," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 356-376, December.
    12. Growiec, Jakub & Schumacher, Ingmar, 2008. "On technical change in the elasticities of resource inputs," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 210-221, December.
    13. Toman, Michael, 2003. "The Roles of the Environment and Natural Resources in Economic Growth Analysis," Discussion Papers 10510, Resources for the Future.
    14. Bretschger, Lucas, 2005. "Economics of technological change and the natural environment: How effective are innovations as a remedy for resource scarcity?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2-3), pages 148-163, August.
    15. Stefano Bosi & David Desmarchelier & Lionel Ragot, 2015. "Preferences and pollution cycles," Working Papers hal-04141382, HAL.
    16. Chung-Huang Huang & Deqin Cai, 1994. "Constant-returns endogenous growth with pollution control," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(4), pages 383-400, August.
    17. Coats, R. Morris & Pecquet, Gary M., 2008. "The effect of opening up ANWR to drilling on the current price of oil," MPRA Paper 9543, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Partha Dasgupta & Geoffrey Heal & Joseph E. Stiflitx, 1980. "The Taxation of Exhaustible Resources," NBER Working Papers 0436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Hernando Zuleta, 2008. "Energy Saving Innovations, Non-Exhaustible Sources of Energy and Long-Run: What Would Happen if we Run Out of Oil?," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, November.
    20. Di Vita, Giuseppe, 2006. "Natural resources dynamics: Exhaustible and renewable resources, and the rate of technical substitution," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 172-182, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:11:y:1998:i:3:p:289-300. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.