On the energy content of a money unit

Bernard C. Beaudreau and Vladimir N. Pokrovskii

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2010, vol. 389, issue 13, 2597-2606

Abstract: In this paper, the concept of “productive energy” as a substitute for conventional labour is examined historically, theoretically and empirically. Over the course of the last centuries, productive energy has been substituted for human, muscle- and brain-based work, providing the wherewithal for the phenomenal growth in material wealth in Western societies. In this era of rising energy costs and increasing energy scarcity, future growth appears to be compromised. To better understand the consequences for society, estimates of the energy content of a dollar’s worth of output are provided for the US and Russia.

Keywords: Energy in production; Labour theory of value; Factor substitution; Production of value; Production factors; US economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437110001998
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:389:y:2010:i:13:p:2597-2606

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2010.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().