Fossil Fuels in Economic Theory- Back to the 19th century British Debates

The interest of economists in fossil fuel exhaustion dates back to the mid-19th century, when, in Great Britain, W. Stanley Jevons published his 1865 essay on coal. In the subsequent decades, fossil fuels were considered with ambivalence: sometimes as a new theoretical and practical priority, someti...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb,
Autor Principal: Missemer, Antoine
Formato: Article ou chapitre numérique
Idioma:Anglais
Publicado: Revue française de civilisation britannique 2018
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Acceso en liña:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
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Résumé:The interest of economists in fossil fuel exhaustion dates back to the mid-19th century, when, in Great Britain, W. Stanley Jevons published his 1865 essay on coal. In the subsequent decades, fossil fuels were considered with ambivalence: sometimes as a new theoretical and practical priority, sometimes as a secondary issue to be studied in standard frameworks. This paper explores, through the example of the mining rent, how fossil fuels were (partially) incorporated into economic theory at the time. It also explains why the original British view was finally relegated to the background in the early 20th century, when American economists took part in the discussions.