Thermodynamic Efficiency Gains and their Role as a Key ‘Engine of Economic Growth’

Marco Sakai, Paul E. Brockway, John R. Barrett and Peter G. Taylor
Additional contact information
Marco Sakai: Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5NG, UK
Paul E. Brockway: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
John R. Barrett: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Peter G. Taylor: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Energies, 2018, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Increasing energy efficiency is commonly viewed as providing a key stimulus to economic growth, through investment in efficient technologies, reducing energy use and costs, enabling productivity gains, and generating jobs. However, this view is received wisdom, as empirical validation has remained elusive. A central problem is that current energy-economy models are not thermodynamically consistent, since they do not include the transformation of energy in physical terms from primary to end-use stages. In response, we develop the UK MAcroeconometric Resource COnsumption (MARCO-UK) model, the first econometric economy-wide model to explicitly include thermodynamic efficiency and end energy use (energy services). We find gains in thermodynamic efficiency are a key ‘engine of economic growth’, contributing 25% of the increases to gross domestic product (GDP) in the UK over the period of 1971–2013. This confirms an underrecognised role for energy in enabling economic growth. We attribute most of the thermodynamic efficiency gains to endogenised technical change. We also provide new insights into how the ‘efficiency-led growth engine’ mechanism works in the whole economy. Our results imply a slowdown in thermodynamic efficiency gains will constrain economic growth, whilst future energy-GDP decoupling will be harder to achieve than we suppose. This confirms the imperative for economic models to become thermodynamically consistent.

Keywords: Energy efficiency; economic growth; thermodynamics; energy-economy modelling; energy demand; exergy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/1/110/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/1/110/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2018:i:1:p:110-:d:193947

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().