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The Physical Economy of the United States of America

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  • Sylvia Gierlinger
  • Fridolin Krausmann

Abstract

The United States is not only the world's largest economy, but it is also one of the world's largest consumers of natural resources. The country, which is inhabited by some 5% of the world's population, uses roughly one‐fifth of the global primary energy supply and 15% of all extracted materials. This article explores long‐term trends and patterns of material use in the United States. Based on a material flow account (MFA) that is fully consistent with current standards of economy‐wide MFAs and covers domestic extraction, imports, and exports of materials for a 135‐year period, we investigated the evolution of the U.S. industrial metabolism. This process was characterized by an 18‐fold increase in material consumption, a multiplication of material use per capita, and a shift from renewable biomass toward mineral and fossil resources. In spite of considerable improvements in material intensity, no dematerialization has happened so far; in contrast to other high‐income countries, material use has not stabilized since the 1970s, but has continued to grow. This article compares patterns and trends of material use in the United States with those in Japan and the United Kingdom and discusses the factors underlying the disproportionately high level of U.S. per capita resource consumption.

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  • Sylvia Gierlinger & Fridolin Krausmann, 2012. "The Physical Economy of the United States of America," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(3), pages 365-377, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:16:y:2012:i:3:p:365-377
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00404.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Kennedy, Christopher, 2022. "Capital, energy and carbon in the United States economy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    2. Marco Bianchi & Carlos Tapia & Ikerne del Valle, 2020. "Monitoring domestic material consumption at lower territorial levels: A novel data downscaling method," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(5), pages 1074-1087, October.
    3. Andrew Leigh, 2021. "Putting the Australian Economy on the Scales," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(1), pages 19-35, March.
    4. Miatto, Alessio & Schandl, Heinz & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2017. "How important are realistic building lifespan assumptions for material stock and demolition waste accounts?," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 143-154.
    5. Kalimeris, Panos & Bithas, Kostas & Richardson, Clive & Nijkamp, Peter, 2020. "Hidden linkages between resources and economy: A “Beyond-GDP” approach using alternative welfare indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    6. Gu, Wei & Wei, Lirong & Zhang, Wenqing & Yan, Xiangbin, 2019. "Evolutionary game analysis of cooperation between natural resource- and energy-intensive companies in reverse logistics operations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 159-169.
    7. Atul Parvatiyar & Jagdish N. Sheth, 2023. "Confronting the deep problem of consumption: Why individual responsibility for mindful consumption matters," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 785-820, April.
    8. West, James & Schandl, Heinz, 2013. "Material use and material efficiency in Latin America and the Caribbean," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 19-27.
    9. Yoshida, Keisuke & Fishman, Tomer & Okuoka, Keijiro & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2017. "Material stock's overburden: Automatic spatial detection and estimation of domestic extraction and hidden material flows," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 165-175.
    10. Marina Fischer-Kowalski & Dominik Wiedenhofer & Willi Haas & Irene Pallua & Daniel Hausknost, 2013. "Developing Resource Use Scenarios for Europe. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 25," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46886, February.
    11. Miatto, Alessio & Schandl, Heinz & Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Krausmann, Fridolin & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2017. "Modeling material flows and stocks of the road network in the United States 1905–2015," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 168-178.
    12. Fix, Blair, 2013. "Human Activity, Energy & Money in the Unlted States: Connecting the Biophysical Economy with its Pecuniary Image," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 203120, October.
    13. Singh, Simron Jit & Krausmann, Fridolin & Gingrich, Simone & Haberl, Helmut & Erb, Karl-Heinz & Lanz, Peter & Martinez-Alier, Joan & Temper, Leah, 2012. "India's biophysical economy, 1961–2008. Sustainability in a national and global context," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 60-69.
    14. Krausmann, Fridolin & Gaugl, Birgit & West, James & Schandl, Heinz, 2016. "The metabolic transition of a planned economy: Material flows in the USSR and the Russian Federation 1900 to 2010," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 76-85.
    15. Song, Yi & Cheng, Jinhua & Zhang, Yijun & Dai, Tao & Huang, Jianbai, 2021. "Direct and indirect effects of heterogeneous technical change on metal consumption intensity: Evidence from G7 and BRICS countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Tiejun Dai & Shuo Shan, 2020. "Path Analysis of Beijing’s Dematerialization Development Based on System Dynamics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-23, January.
    17. West, James & Schandl, Heinz & Krausmann, Fridolin & Kovanda, Jan & Hak, Tomas, 2014. "Patterns of change in material use and material efficiency in the successor states of the former Soviet Union," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 211-219.
    18. Fishman, Tomer & Schandl, Heinz & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2015. "The socio-economic drivers of material stock accumulation in Japan's prefectures," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 76-84.
    19. Julia K Steinberger & Fridolin Krausmann & Michael Getzner & Heinz Schandl & Jim West, 2013. "Development and Dematerialization: An International Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-11, October.
    20. Fix, Blair, 2019. "Human Activity, Energy & Money in the United States: Connecting the Biophysical Economy with its Pecuniary Image," Thesis Commons e74ng, Center for Open Science.
    21. Krausmann, Fridolin & Langthaler, Ernst, 2019. "Food regimes and their trade links: A socio-ecological perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 87-95.
    22. Blair Fix, 2019. "Dematerialization Through Services: Evaluating the Evidence," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 1-17, June.
    23. Marina Fischer-Kowalski & Daniel Hausknost, 2014. "Large-scale Societal Transitions in the Past. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 55," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 47187, February.
    24. Kaixin Huang & Matthew J. Eckelman, 2022. "Appending material flows to the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) for projecting the physical economy of the United States," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(1), pages 294-308, February.

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