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Energy as a factor of production: Historical roots in the American institutionalist context

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  • Missemer, Antoine
  • Nadaud, Franck

Abstract

The relationship between energy and economic output is today discussed through the decoupling issue. A pioneering historical attempt to measure this relationship can be found in contributions by F. G. Tryon et al. at the Brookings Institution in the 1920s–1930s, in the American institutionalist context. This episode has scarcely been noticed in the literature. On the basis of textual analysis, archival material and econometrics, the purpose of this article is to provide a historical account of this corpus (context, originality), to assess the relevance of its statistical results, and to highlight the salient issues of the time that could feed into contemporary research. In particular, the articulation between empirical observations (inter-index correlation), theoretical implications (considering energy as a factor of production) and energy policy (global strategy rather than sectoral measures) is an old question deserving attention.

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  • Missemer, Antoine & Nadaud, Franck, 2020. "Energy as a factor of production: Historical roots in the American institutionalist context," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:86:y:2020:i:c:s0140988320300451
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104706
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    1. Roberto Ferreira da Cunha & Antoine Missemer, 2020. "The Hotelling rule in non‐renewable resource economics: A reassessment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 800-820, May.
    2. Guarino, Raffaele & Corsi, Giulio & Muñoz-Ulecia, Enrique, 2023. "How sustainable development goals have transformed our world? Evolution of the ecological networks of the Italian economy," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 484(C).
    3. François Allisson & Antoine Missemer, 2020. "Some Historiographical Tools for the Study of Intellectual Legacies," Post-Print halshs-02931492, HAL.
    4. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Antoine Missemer, 2023. "The History of Energy Efficiency in Economics: Breakpoints and Regularities," Post-Print halshs-02301636, HAL.
    5. Semieniuk, Gregor, 2024. "Inconsistent definitions of GDP: Implications for estimates of decoupling," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Decoupling; Energy intensity; Tryon; Brookings Institution; Natural resources; Institutionalism; History of economic thought;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General
    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy

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