Transitions of Energy Regimes

An Evolutionary Economic Interpretation
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-3-8441-0225-3
Verlag: Josef Eul Verlag GmbH

Buch, Englisch, 332 Seiten, PB, Format (B × H): 1480 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 511 g

Transitions of energy regimes are phenomena that have profoundly affected economies and civilisations over the last 600 years. The shifts from wood to coal, from coal to oil and the potential change to another resource that might be pending now have influenced the ways in which we work, produce, and live. Though they are fundamentally influenced and steered by economic forces these changes have seen little analysis from the viewpoint of economic theory.

This book seeks to contribute to filling this gap. To this avail, it firstly provides insight into the historical and present transitions that have taken place. It then gives an overview of the existing economic approaches to energy regime transitions and develops a new interpretation based on evolutionary economics. For this, an approach based on complexity theory and complex adaptive systems is created and applied and the mechanisms behind regime changes are interpreted according to this framework. The analysis is supported by further research into certain aspects of transitions: Historical and present research on resource depletion is compared, the working of path dependence in the constitution and decline of the oil regime is analysed, and the role of entrepreneurship in a regime change from the oil regime towards a potential renewable energy regime is investigated. The book closes with an appraisal of energy regime transitions as a future field of research for evolutionary economics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Berg, Holger

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Introduction
1.1 Preamble
1.2 Research Objectives and Focus of the Study
1.3 Outline of the Thesis

2 Perceptions of Energy Regime Transitions – Empirical Evidence, Theoretical Accounts and the History of Economics
2.1 Transition of Energy Regimes as a Historical Phenomenon
2.2 Resource Exhaustion and Innovation as Causes for Transitions of Energy Regimes in the Body of Economic Literature and Theory
2.3 Exhibit I: Comparing the Treatment of Resource Depletion in Economics Then and Now – William S. Jevons’s “The Coal Question” and the Peak Oil Hypothesis
2.4 Summary: Energy Transitions as Historical Subject and Concern for Economic Theory

3 Complexity Theory as a Potential Interpretational Framework towards an Evolutionary Economic Analysis
3.1 Evolutionary Economics – Background and Overview
3.2 Complexity Theory
3.3 Exhibit II: A First Cautious Approach: Applying Path Dependence, Irreversibility and Historicity to the Oil Regime and the Peak Oil Phenomenon
3.4 Evaluation and Summary: Complexity Theory as a Potential Interpretative Framework

4 Transitions of Energy Regimes in the View of Complexity Theory – Interpretation and Evaluation of the Approach
4.1 An Interpretation of Transitions in Energy Regimes through the Application of Complexity Theory
4.2 Critical Evaluation of the Approach
4.3 An Empirical Analysis of Agent-based Political Intervention: Entrepreneurship Policy in the Context of Energy Regime Transitions
4.4 Subsuming the Evaluation – Limitations and Desiderata

5 Evolutionary Economic Explorations into Energy Regime Transitions – Contributions from this Study and the Promise of a Field for Research
5.1 Potential Contributions of the Thesis to Evolutionary Economics
5.2 Energy Regime Transitions as a Prospective Field of Research for Evolutionary Economics

6 Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Holger Berg studied at the University of Wuppertal and was awarded the FGF Diploma Award 2003 for his analysis on “The Evolution of the Nascent Enterprise from a Resource-based View Perspective”. His interests focus on entrepreneurship, creativity, entrepreneurship policy, renewable energies, the Emergence and Evolution of Energy Regimes, and succession in SMEs. 2009-2012 he was managing director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Research and member of the UNESCO Chair of Entrepreneurship and Intercultural Management. He is visiting lecturer at ASE Bucharest, the Technical University of Kosice and University of Applied Sciences Rhein Waal. He is involved with knowledge transfer, urban development, voluntary work, and a consultant to Start-ups.