Towards a Disequilibrium Theory of Endogenous Economic Growth

Robert Ayres ()

Environmental & Resource Economics, 1998, vol. 11, issue 3, 289-300

Abstract: This paper discusses the need for a new approach to economic growth theory. The standard theory of growth-in-equilibrium driven by exogenous, uncaused, productivity gains has an implication that is both unjustified and perverse from a policy perspective: that government intervention of any kind can only introduce constraints and reduce option space, thus decreasing potential growth. It is argued that growth theory should (1) acknowledge the importance of natural resources, especially fossil fuels, as a driver of past and present economic growth, (2) incorporate an explicit recognition that growth is a consequence of technological innovation, especially radical innovation, that often responds to natural resource scarcities or other societal needs and (3) explicitly reflect the fact that the important (i.e. scarce) factors of production in economics can and do change over time, i.e. from a rural ‘cowboy’ economy of the past to an urbanized ‘spaceship’ economy of the future. In short, it should reflect the fact that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. The first and third of these modifications have been proposed before, but not in combination. The third seems to be new. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998

Keywords: cowboy economy; economic growth; exergy; spaceship economy; technological progress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1023/A:1008239127479

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