Table 1 Summary of the model’s features.
From: Macroeconomic dynamics in a finite world based on thermodynamic potential
1—Quantity and quality | Manufacturing of material objects requires a nonzero quantity of energy of high quality to reduce and reverse the dispersion process of matter |
2—Economic/resource spheres | The availability of resources and the carrying capacity of Earth as a sink for anthropogenic wastes enable the production of aggregate “useful work”-the output of the whole economic process-associated with wastes |
3—Frictional viscous term | Joint production is composed of garbage and work, whose respective fractions depend on the operating intensity, and is irreversible |
4—Aggregate demand function | Global demand is disaggregated to quantify the demand for each resource. It boils down to the standard “production function” in case of unlimited resources |
5—Common elementary unit | Each resource (matter and energy) is described by the same structure, called a sheet |
6—Energy conversion engine | The formalism of each sheet is based on Finite Time Thermodynamics, characterized, among other things, by friction and operating intensity |
7—E&M conservation | The quantity of each physical resource is conserved throughout the economic process. The economic dynamics is Stock Flow Consistent. Each sheet satisfies both physical and economic balance |
