Thermoeconomics
Thermoeconomics, also referred to as biophysical economics, is a school of heterodox economics that applies the laws of statistical mechanics to economic theory.[1] Thermoeconomics can be thought of as the statistical physics of economic value[2] and is a subfield of econophysics.
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Thermodynamics
Thermoeconomists maintain that human economic systems can be modeled as thermodynamic systems. Thermoeconomists argue that economic systems always involve matter, energy, entropy, and information.[3] Then, based on this premise, theoretical economic analogs of the first and second laws of thermodynamics are developed.[4]
Moreover, many economic activities result in the formation of structures. Thermoeconomics applies the statistical mechanics of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to model these activities.[1] In thermodynamic terminology, human economic activity may be described as a dissipative system, which flourishes by consuming free energy in transformations and exchange of resources, goods, and services.[5][6]
Application to biology
Thermoeconomics is based on the proposition that the role of energy in biological evolution should be defined and understood not through the second law of thermodynamics but in terms of such economic criteria as productivity, efficiency, and especially the costs and benefits (or profitability) of the various mechanisms for capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work.[7][8]
See also
References
- Sieniutycz, Stanislaw; Salamon, Peter (1990). Finite-Time Thermodynamics and Thermoeconomics. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8448-1668-X.
- Chen, Jing (2005). The Physical Foundation of Economics - an Analytical Thermodynamic Theory. World Scientific. ISBN 981-256-323-7.
- Baumgarter, Stefan. (2004). Thermodynamic Models, Modeling in Ecological Economics (Ch. 18) Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine
- Burley, Peter; Foster, John (1994). Economics and Thermodynamics – New Perspectives on Economic Analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-9446-1.
- Raine, Alan; Foster, John; Potts, Jason (2006). "The new entropy law and the economic process". Ecological Complexity. 3 (4): 354–360. doi:10.1016/j.ecocom.2007.02.009.
- Annila, A. and Salthe, S., Arto; Salthe, Stanley (2009). "Economies evolve by energy dispersal". Entropy. 11 (4): 606–633. Bibcode:2009Entrp..11..606A. doi:10.3390/e11040606.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Peter A. Corning 1*, Stephen J. Kline. (2000). Thermodynamics, information and life revisited, Part II: Thermoeconomics and Control information Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Apr. 07, Volume 15, Issue 6 , Pages 453 – 482
- Corning, P. (2002). “Thermoeconomics – Beyond the Second Law Archived 2008-09-22 at the Wayback Machine”
Further reading
- Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas (1971). The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-1583486009.
- Pokrovskii, Vladimir (2011). Econodynamics. The Theory of Social Production. New Economic Windows. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4419-9364-9.
- Kümmel, Reiner (2011). The Second Law of Economics: Energy, Entropy, and the Origins of Wealth. The Frontiers Collection. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 978-94-007-2095-4.
- Chen, Jing (2015). The Unity of Science and Economics: A New Foundation of Economic Theory: Springer.
External links
- Yuri Yegorov, article Econo-physics: A Perspective of Matching Two Sciences, Evol. Inst. Econ. Rev. 4(1): 143–170 (2007)
- Borisas Cimbleris (1998): Economy and Thermodynamics
- Schwartzman, David. (2007). "The Limits to Entropy: the Continuing Misuse of Thermodynamics in Environmental and Marxist theory", In Press, Science & Society.
- Saslow, Wayne M. (1999). "An Economic Analogy to Thermodynamics" American Association of Physics Teachers.