The role of natural resources in production: Georgescu-Roegen/ Daly versus Solow/ Stiglitz

Quentin Couix

Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) from HAL

Abstract: This paper proposes a historical and epistemological account of one of the key controversy between natural resources economics and ecological economics, lasting from early 1970s to the end of 1990s. It shows that the theoretical disagreement on the scope of the economy's dependence to natural resources, such as energy and minerals, has deep methodological roots. On one hand, Solow's and Stiglitz's works are built on a "model-based methodology", where the model precedes and supports the conceptual foundations of the theory and in particular the assumption of "unbounded resources productivity". On the other hand, Georgescu-Roegen's counter-assumption of "thermodynamic limits to production", later revived by Daly, rest on a methodology of "interdisciplinary consistency" which considers thermodynamics as a relevant scientific referent for economic theory. While antagonistic, these two methodologies face similar issues regarding the conceptual foundations that arise from them, which is a source of confusion and of the difficult dialogue between paradigms.

Keywords: natural resources; thermodynamics; growth; sustainability; model; theory; methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01702401v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in 2018

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Working Paper: The role of natural resources in production: Georgescu-Roegen/ Daly versus Solow/ Stiglitz (2018)
Working Paper: The role of natural resources in production: Georgescu-Roegen/Daly versus Solow/Stiglitz (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01702401

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