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Energy as a Factor of Production: Historical Roots in the American Institutionalist Context

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  • Antoine Missemer

    (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Franck Nadaud

    (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Antoine Missemer & Franck Nadaud, 2020. "Energy as a Factor of Production: Historical Roots in the American Institutionalist Context," Post-Print halshs-02467734, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02467734
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104706
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02467734
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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. François Allisson & Antoine Missemer, 2020. "Some Historiographical Tools for the Study of Intellectual Legacies," Post-Print halshs-02931492, HAL.
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    6. 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

    Institutionalism; History of economic thought; Natural resources; Brookings Institution; Decoupling; Energy intensity; Tryon;
    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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