ABSTRACT OF PAPER

Title: Rereading Jevons’ “The Coal Question” in the Light of Current Energy Debates
Author: Duman Yavuz Selman, Ozgur M. Erdem


William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) was certainly one of the most prominent thinkers of the nineteenth century with his contribution to marginal revolution and his influence on the development of empirical methods in economics. Equally important and valuable to many were his insights on the importance of energy (particularly coal in his case) in economic development. Energy economics is a relatively new (and quite broad) area which has close connections with growth, development and environment related subjects. Yet, an early presentation of current debates on energy was skillfully produced by Jevons in “The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal-Mines” published in 1865. Although the book was criticized for lacking a realistic conception of the capitalist system, the literature developed around Jevons’ contributions such as Jevons’ paradox, which became quite popular with the oil crises of the 1970s, demonstrates that his insights deserve more attention. This paper discusses Jevons’ contributions in the framework of current energy debates including the feasibility of renewable energy sources and sustainable development, along with Jevons’ shortcomings such as his failure of grasping the role of one major figure in a capitalist economy, namely entrepreneur.

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