IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v16y2005i2p165-179.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

'Production' in nature and production in the economy--second thoughts about some basic economic concepts

Author

Listed:
  • Witt, Ulrich

Abstract

If production means generating output by application of specific inputs, then production is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature. This observation invites a double comparison. First, physical production processes in nature can be compared to those in the economy. The differences highlight cumulative changes in technology which explain how specific modern forms of human production have become feasible through cultural evolution. Second, such a 'naturalistic' perspective on production can be compared to, and sheds new light on, the remarkably different perspective in economics which interprets production not as physical processes, but as a problem of human social interaction and coordination.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Witt, Ulrich, 2005. "'Production' in nature and production in the economy--second thoughts about some basic economic concepts," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 165-179, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:16:y:2005:i:2:p:165-179
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954-349X(03)00076-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N/A, 1978. "Chapter II. The Home Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 84(1), pages 22-34, May.
    2. N/A, 1978. "Calendar of Economic Events April—June 1978," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 85(1), pages 55-57, August.
    3. N/A, 1978. "Chapter I. The Economy in 1977," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 84(1), pages 6-21, May.
    4. -, 1978. "Caracteristicas economicas de la poblacion," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 32266, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    5. N/A, 1978. "Chapter I. The Home Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 85(1), pages 6-14, August.
    6. N/A, 1978. "Chapter III. The World Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 86(1), pages 29-41, November.
    7. ., 1998. "Corn Model," Chapters, in: Heinz D. Kurz & Neri Salvadori (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Classical Economics, volume 0, chapter 34, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Heinz D. Kurz & Neri Salvadori (ed.), 1998. "The Elgar Companion to Classical Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, volume 0, number 851.
    9. N/A, 1978. "Chapter III. The World Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 83(1), pages 35-51, February.
    10. N/A, 1978. "Calendar of Economic Events January-March 1978," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 84(1), pages 70-74, May.
    11. Kurz,Heinz D. & Salvadori,Neri, 1997. "Theory of Production," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521588676.
    12. Johann Peter Murmann & Ernst Homburg, 2001. "special feature: Comparing evolutionary dynamics across different national settings: the case of the synthetic dye industry, 1857-1914," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 177-205.
    13. Unknown, 1978. "Gasohol from Grain- The Economic Issues," Economics Statistics and Cooperative Services (ESCS) Reports 142842, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    14. Witt, Ulrich, 1997. "Self-organization and economics--what is new?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 489-507, October.
    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. Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, 2015. "Energy, growth, and evolution: Towards a naturalistic ontology of economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 432-442.
    2. John Gowdy & Lisi Krall, 2014. "Agriculture as a major evolutionary transition to human ultrasociality," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 179-202, July.
    3. Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, 2018. "The Case for a New Discipline: Technosphere Science," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 212-225.
    4. Katalin Martinas, 2005. "Energy in Physics and in Economy," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 3(2), pages 44-58.
    5. Gowdy, John M. & Dollimore, Denise E. & Wilson, David Sloan & Witt, Ulrich, 2013. "Economic cosmology and the evolutionary challenge," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(S), pages 11-20.
    6. Foster, John, 2011. "Energy, aesthetics and knowledge in complex economic systems," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 88-100.
    7. Scazzieri, Roberto, 2014. "A structural theory of increasing returns," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 75-88.
    8. Tomasz Zalega, 2015. "Entrepreneurial Attitudes of Students from the Selected Lublin Universities vs the Development of Academic Entrepreneurship (Ekonomia ewolucyjna jako jeden z nurtow wspolczesnej ekonomii – zarys probl," Research Reports, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 2(19), pages 157-177.

    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. Giovanni Scarano, 2013. "Capital accumulation and technical conditions along sustainable growth paths," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0182, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    2. Agustin J. Ros, 2020. "Does electricity competition work for residential consumers? Evidence from demand models for default and competitive residential electricity services," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 1-32, August.
    3. Christian Gehrke, 2000. "Tozer on machinery," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 485-506.
    4. Victor Aguirregabiria & Jesus Carro, 2021. "Identification of Average Marginal Effects in Fixed Effects Dynamic Discrete Choice Models," Working Papers tecipa-701, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    5. Neri Salvadori & Rodolfo Signorino, 2014. "Adam Smith on Monopoly Theory. Making good a lacuna," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(2), pages 178-195, May.
    6. Robert E. Cumby & Maurice Obstfeld, 1984. "International Interest Rate and Price Level Linkages under Flexible Exchange Rates: A Review of Recent Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: Exchange Rate Theory and Practice, pages 121-152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. G. Naline & Brinda Viswanathan, 2017. "Predictors of Age-Specific Childhood Mortality in India," Working Papers 2017-167, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    8. Mariolis, Theodore, 2018. "Μεσότητα Και «Τρίτος Άνθρωπος» Στην Αριστοτελίζουσα Θεωρία Των Ανταλλακτικών Αξιών [Mean and “Third Man Argument” in the Aristotelian Theory of Exchange Values]," MPRA Paper 86521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Heinz Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2000. "'Classical' Roots of Input-Output Analysis: A Short Account of its Long Prehistory," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 153-179.
    10. Akhabbar, Amanar & Lallement, Jérôme, 2010. "Wassily Leontief and Léon Walras: the Production as a Circular Flow," MPRA Paper 30207, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Vivian Walsh, 2000. "Smith After Sen," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 5-25.
    12. Heinz D. Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2011. "In Favor of Rigor and Relevance: A Reply to Mark Blaug," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 607-616, Fall.
    13. Christoph Breunig & Patrick Burauel, 2021. "Testability of Reverse Causality Without Exogenous Variation," Papers 2107.05936, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.
    14. Signorino, Rodolfo, 2011. "David Ricardo on natural and market prices," MPRA Paper 39212, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Kenji Mori, 2010. "Charasoff and Dmitriev: An Analytical Characterisation of Origins of Linear Economics," TERG Discussion Papers 249, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    16. Woodcock, Simon D., 2020. "The Effect of the Hartz Labor Market Reforms on Post-unemployment Wages, Sorting, and Matching," IZA Discussion Papers 13300, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Geoff C. Harcourt & Peter Kriesler, 2014. "On Ricardo and Cambridge," Discussion Papers 2014-04, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    18. Mariolis, Theodore, 2006. "A Critique of the ‘New Approach’ to the Transformation Problem and a Proposal," MPRA Paper 24019, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Fabio Ravagnani, 1999. "On a current characterization of the classical theory of value," Working Papers in Public Economics 39, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.
    20. Alberto Quadrio Curzio, 2011. "Resources and Economic Dynamics, Technology and Rents," CRANEC - Working Papers del Centro di Ricerche in Analisi economica e sviluppo economico internazionale crn1102, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Centro di Ricerche in Analisi economica e sviluppo economico internazionale (CRANEC).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:streco:v:16:y:2005:i:2:p:165-179. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    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.