The Physical Economy of France (1830–2015). The History of a Parasite?

Nelo Magalhães, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, François Jarrige, Thomas Le Roux, Gaëtan Levillain, Margot Lyautey, Guillaume Noblet and Christophe Bonneuil

Ecological Economics, 2019, vol. 157, issue C, 291-300

Abstract: This article explores long-term trends and patterns of material use in France for a 185-year period. It is the first long-term study of material flows for France with national and yearly data for most of the period. Based on a material flow analysis (MFA) that is fully consistent with current standards of economy-wide MFAs and covers domestic extraction, imports, and exports of materials, we investigated the evolution of the French metabolism from industrialization to financialized capitalism. Over the whole period, there is a 9-fold increase in domestic material consumption, an expansion of material use per capita, and a spectacular addition of abiotic resources (fossil fuels and minerals) to biotic materials. Using a world-ecology framework, we exhibit a specific metabolic path: that of a state benefiting from successive world-systems for its economic development through massive material imports.

Keywords: Material flow analysis (MFA); Social metabolism; Environmental history; Economic history; World-ecology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: The physical economy of France (1830-2015). The story of a parasite? (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:157:y:2019:i:c:p:291-300

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.12.001

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