Is the Entropy Law Relevant to the Economics of Natural Resource Scarcity?
Author(s)
Young, Jeffrey T.
Abstract
Mainstream economists have ignored the entropy law in their models of production and economic growth, in spite of the of the strong resemblance that entropy has to the laws of diminishing returns and the concept of scarcity. This paper argues that mainstream economists are right in ignoring the entropy law, as it does not add anything new to what is already considered in models of long-run economic growth with respect to the availability of environmental resources. [Note: There are two responses to this article in the SSL, one by Herman Daly and another by Kenneth Townsend.]
