Publication Details |
Category | Text Publication |
Reference Category | Journals |
DOI | 10.1016/j.energy.2008.07.002 |
Title (Primary) | Time horizons and electricity futures: an application of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's general theory of economic production |
Author | Farrell, K.N.; Mayumi, K. |
Source Titel | Energy |
Year | 2009 |
Department | OEKON |
Volume | 34 |
Issue | 3 |
Page From | 301 |
Page To | 307 |
Language | deutsch |
Keywords | Time; Energy; Futures trading; Georgescu-Roegen; Flow/fund modelling; Production processes; Tradition |
Abstract | This paper reports theoretical economic production work and uses electricity futures trading to illustrate its argument. The focus is relationships between time, production and tradition both in Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's analytical representation of the production process (i.e., flow/fund model) and in his dialectical scheme dealing with the evolutionary changes in the economic process. Our main arguments are (1) the flow/fund model is designed to be employed in conjunction with attention to how the boundaries of a given process are determined and (2) process boundaries are dialectical distinctions-between process and not-process-that are strongly related to time and tradition. We propose that Georgescu-Roegen's The Entropy Law and the Economic Process is best understood as the elaboration of a general theory of economic production and we developed two conceptual tools (time (sic) and meta-funds), both of which are related to the dialectical distinction between process and not-process, which we use to operationalise this general theory. Finally, we demonstrate that, although trading in electricity futures is surprising if one uses a stock/flow vs services distinction (because electricity supply is classed as a service) it appears perfectly logical under Georgescu-Roegen's general theory: shortening time horizons, combined with a shift in the relationship between raw fuel supplies and power production procedures, lead to a shift in the status of electricity supply, from fund to flow. |
Persistent UFZ Identifier | https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=157 |
Farrell, K.N., Mayumi, K. (2009): Time horizons and electricity futures: an application of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's general theory of economic production Energy 34 (3), 301 - 307 10.1016/j.energy.2008.07.002 |