Standard economic theory regards capital and labour as the main factors of production that satisfy the “cost-share theorem”. This paper argues that when a third factor, namely energy, is added physical constraints on substitution among the factors arise. We show that energy is a much more...

This article makes three important arguments that need to be integrated into mainstream economic theory. The first argument is that energy is the substance of the universe, and everything in the universe is energy. Energy (exergy in modern terminology) is neither produced nor destroyed by human...

Industrial Ecology is perhaps the first serious attempt to go beyond general statements regarding the desirability of 'clean technology' and to assess realistically and quantitatively the range of practicable possibilities for reducing materials extraction, consumption and waste. This major new...

In an evolutionary dynamic economic theory the accumulation of durable goods (i.e., wealth) is a key feature. Here we show that the wealth of individual economic agents can be measured by the progress function (PF). PF is a function of goods and money under straightforward assumptions, notably...