Abstract
This book is written by an ecologist and an economist, and part of our objective is to assess where insights and principles from these two disciplines can be combined to understand economies better. Although the two disciplines may appear very different we believe instead that the phenomena they study are very similar in many ways. From a biophysical perspective the economies of cities, regions, and nations can be viewed as ecosystems, with their own structures and functions, their own flows of materials and of energy, with more or less diversity and stability and so on: in short with all the characteristics of natural systems, with, generally, much greater energy intensity and dominance by one species. From the perspective of individual organisms there are also important similarities between natural and economic systems.
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Hall, C.A.S., Klitgaard, K.A. (2012). Explaining Economics from an Energy Perspective. In: Energy and the Wealth of Nations. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9398-4_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9398-4_4
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