Your path in the tree: Start > Schools of Economic Thought, Epistemology of Economics > Heterodox Approaches > Thermoeconomics
This entry's rating: 1.5/5 (2 ratings)
Log in to rate or make a suggestion

Thermoeconomics

Narrower topics in the RePEc Biblio tree


This RePEc Biblio topic is edited by Yuri Fyodar Maksimenko Sr.. It was first published on 2013-03-24 09:13:36 and last updated on 2017-04-26 13:48:51.

Introduction by the editor

Thermoeconomics - is it a science for economy? Everyone can answer this question if he (she) casts his (her) looks at the general evolution of economic thought during XIX - XX centuries. First it was the theory of "invisible hand" controlling the reproduction of life through sell and buy, solar energy was a thing taken for granted. Soon it was noticed that economy was a system which consumed and produced energy with efficiency exceeding 100% (surplus product) which seemingly contradicted the second law of thermodynamics. The explanation of the phenomenon was found in the qualities of labour which produced a manifold of economic values and sophisticated social problems. It was an enticing idea to avoid the uncertain qualities of labour and directly apply the laws of thermodynamics to the economic theory. This effort became known as "thermoeconomics". It failed to be acknowledged as an adequate description of economy because it could not tackle the economic values but it focused the attention of economists upon the natural property of uncertainty. Thermoeconomics showered that any economic activity dissipates energy and thus ultimately leads the world to the state of maximum uncertainty (chaos). Contrary to this, political economy saw labour as a creative force which produced a certain form of life despite the dissipation of energy. Thus certainty prevailed over uncertainty. In the middle of the XX century cybernetics showed that uncertainty (entropy) was a fundamental property of any system which determined the direction of its evolution and that the opposite property of uncertainty (information) can reverse the direction of the evolution of the system. It was shown that the evolution of a physical system goes towards the maximum entropy and the evolution of a living system (economy) goes towards the minimum entropy.

Most relevant link for this topic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoeconomics

Most relevant JEL codes

Most relevant NEP reports

NEP reports are email or RSS notifications about new research in selected fields. Subscriptions are free.

Most relevant research

  1. Ternyik, Stephen I., 2013. "The Energetics of Economics (Money as access to Energy)," MPRA Paper 44850, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Giffin, Adom, 2009. "From physics to economics: An econometric example using maximum relative entropy," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(8), pages 1610-1620.
  3. John Bryant, 2012. "Thermoeconomics - A Thermodynamic Approach to Economics (Third edition)," Books, Economic Consultancy, Vocat International, edition 0, number tebp2012, July.
  4. Juan R. De Miguel & Ghanshyam B. Mehta & Esteban Induráin & Juan C. Candeal, 2001. "Utility and entropy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 17(1), pages 233-238.
  5. Zhang, Yong-Jun, 2014. "Entropy and entropy production in some applications," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 396(C), pages 88-98.
  6. Urban Kordes, 2005. "Entropy - our best friend," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 3(1), pages 17-26.
  7. Lucia, Umberto, 2015. "Quanta and entropy generation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 419(C), pages 115-121.
  8. John Bryant, 2015. "Entropy Man," Books, Economic Consultancy, Vocat International, edition 0, number em2015, July.
  9. Lucia, Umberto, 2014. "Entropy generation: Minimum inside and maximum outside," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 396(C), pages 61-65.
  10. Fratzscher, Wolfgang & Stephan, Karl, 2003. "Waste energy usage and entropy economy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(13), pages 1281-1302.
  11. Yuri Maksimenko, 2001. "Entropy of economy," Non-monetary economics 0008, Maksimenko Yu.F..
  12. Bojan Dimitrijević & Ivan Lovre, 2015. "The Role of Temperature in Economic Exchange - An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 4(3), pages 65-89.
  13. Fisk, David, 2011. "Thermodynamics on Main Street: When entropy really counts in economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1931-1936, September.
  14. Rawlings, Philip K. & Reguera, David & Reiss, Howard, 2004. "Entropic basis of the Pareto law," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 343(C), pages 643-652.
  15. Niţă DOBROTĂ & Adrian VIERIŢĂ, 2010. "The Law of Entropy – the Most Economical of All Natural Laws. Current Manifestations of World Economics," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 5(5(546)), pages 81-98, May.
  16. Juan R. De Miguel & Ghanshyam B. Mehta & Esteban Induráin & Juan C. Candeal, 2001. "Utility and entropy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 17(1), pages 233-238.
  17. John Gowdy & Susan Mesner, 1998. "The Evolution of Georgescu-Roegen's Bioeconomics," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 136-156.