Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/157804
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Citation: 
[Journal:] PLoS ONE [Volume:] 12 [Issue:] 2 [Publisher:] The Bichler and Nitzan Archives [Place:] Toronto [Year:] 2017 [Pages:] 1-22
Publisher: 
The Bichler and Nitzan Archives, Toronto
Abstract: 
Why do institutions grow? Despite nearly a century of scientific effort, there remains little consensus on this topic. This paper offers a new approach that focuses on energy consumption. A systematic relation exists between institution size and energy consumption per capita: as energy consumption increases, institutions become larger. I hypothesize that this relation results from the interplay between technological scale and human biological limitations. I also show how a simple stochastic model can be used to link energy consumption with firm dynamics.
Subjects: 
complexity
energy
human biology
institutions
hierarchy
technology
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
URL of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version






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