Research Area 5
Thermodynamics and Joint Production in Economy-Environment-Systems
Thermodynamics is the branch of physics that deals with macroscopic transformations of energy and matter. As economy-environment interactions are, in the first place, an exchange of energy and matter, the laws of thermodynamics provide a useful analytical framework within which fundamental insights into society's "metabolism" and its embeddedness in the natural environment may be rigorously deduced in energetic and material terms. Our research in this area is mainly at the conceptual level. It focuses on the formal integration of thermodynamic and economic concepts and models.
Many environmental problems are caused by substances that are jointly produced with desired goods. Examples include anthropogenic climate change, acidification of soils and the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. In this research area we study how the economic concept of joint production may be used as a foundation for the interdisciplinary analysis of the causes and sustainable solutions of environmental problems. We build on concepts and methods from philosophy of science, systems theory, thermodynamics, economics, epistemology and ethics.
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Baumgärtner, S. (2000), Ambivalent Joint Production and the Natural Environment. An Economic and Thermodynamic Analysis, Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg and New York. |
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Baumgärtner, S. (2004), Price ambivalence of secondary resources: joint production, limits to substitution, and costly disposal, Resources, Conservation and Recycling 43(1), 95-117. |
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Baumgärtner, S. (2004), The Inada conditions for material resource inputs reconsidered, Environmental and Resource Economics 29(3), 307-322. |
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Baumgärtner, S. (2004), Thermodynamic models, in: J. Proops and P. Safonov (eds), Modelling in Ecological Economics, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 102-129. |
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Baumgärtner, S. (2005), Temporal and thermodynamic irreversibility in production theory, Economic Theory 26(3), 725-728. |
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Baumgärtner, S. and J. de Swaan Arons (2003), Necessity and inefficiency in the generation of waste. A thermodynamic analysis, Journal of Industrial Ecology 7(2), 113-123. |
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Baumgärtner, S., H. Dyckhoff, M. Faber, J. Proops and J. Schiller (2001), The concept of joint production and ecological economics, Ecological Economics 36(3), 365-372. |
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Baumgärtner, S., M. Faber and J. Proops (2002), How environmental concern influences the investment decision. An application of capital theory, Ecological Economics 40(1), 1-12. |
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Baumgärtner, S., M. Faber and J. Schiller (2006), Joint Production and Responsibility in Ecological Economics. On the Foundations of Environmental Policy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. |
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Baumgärtner, S. and F. Jöst (2000), Joint production, externalities, and the regulation of production networks, Environmental and Resource Economics 16(2), 229-251. |
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Baumgärtner, S., F. Jöst and R. Winkler (2009), Optimal dynamic scale and structure of a multi-pollution economy, Ecological Economics 68(4), 1226-1238. |
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Baumgärtner, S. (2001), Heinrich von Stackelberg on joint production, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 8(4), 509-525. |
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Baumgärtner, S. and R. Winkler (2003), Markets, technology and environmental regulation: price ambivalence of waste paper in Germany, Ecological Economics 47(2-3), 183-195. |
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