Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/207634 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper Series No. 659
Publisher: 
University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
The aim of this paper is to contribute to an innovative agenda in the field of Environmental Economics. The paper focusses on a conceptual and political perspective on the interactions between nature and economy. Section 1 states that Environmental Economics has to consider three fields: nature, justice and the role of time. To operationalize this claim, we introduce fundamental concepts such as entropy, joint production, ignorance, evolution, absolute scarcity, responsibility and homo politicus and explain them in Section 2. These concepts are applied in Section 3 using a historical example, namely the soda-chlorine industry, extending over a period of about three centuries. The lessons taken from this economic, environmental and political evolution are outlined in Section 4. In Section 5, we apply the concept of responsibility to address political aspects dealt with when examining the interplay between nature and economy. In our outlook in Section 6, we argue that these concepts and further concepts do not form a hierarchically structured system. Instead they are conceived as a network of interdependent concepts that reference each other but also remain categorically distinct from one another.
Subjects: 
absolute and relative scarcity
evolution
joint production
ignorance
responsibility
power of judgment
homo politicus
JEL: 
B4
B5
D72
Q50
Q53
Q55
Q57
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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