On the notion of value. A comparative analysis between economic and biophysical approaches
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/EQ.2024.041Keywords
theory of value, valuation, biophysical accountingAbstract
The plurality of dimensions and topics covered by the SDGs reflects the need to assess the value of organizations, cities, and societies using a holistic approach that considers different dimensions and criteria. It is much needed to shift towards inter-disciplinary, multi-criteria and integrated perspectives, opening the door to views able to consider different scientific points of view when assessing the most “valuable” pillars in human societies. This need highlights a controversial question: “what do we mean when we refer to a concept so broad such as the one of “value” and its measurement”? The concept of value and welfare have changed throughout the years, also in relation to the historical context and societal structure and needs of the time. But time has not been the only factor in differentiating value theories. While most organically structured definitions of value have originated, as expected, from the developments of the economic discipline, this issue has also been addressed by scientists belonging to the biophysical realm. In this paper, a comparative overview of the main economic and biophysical value theories, developing from very different epistemological backgrounds, is provided. Results suggest the need to foster inter-disciplinary communication on the notion of value, which is an abstract construct at the root of our societies and economies.
References
Alcamo, J., & et al. (2003). Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment (MEA). http://www.who.int/entity/globalchange/ecosystems/ecosys.pdf
Alchian, A. A. (1950). Uncertainty, evolution and economic theory. Journal of Political Economy, 58(3), 211–221.
Beder, S. (1996). Charging the earth : The promotion of price-based measures for pollution control. Ecological Economics, 16, 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/0921-8009(95)00078-CI
Beder, S. (2011). Environmental economics and ecological economics: The contribution of interdisciplinarity to understanding, influence and effectiveness. Environmental Conservation, 38(2), 140–150. https://doi.org/10.1017/S037689291100021X
Bentham, J. (1789). An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (excerpt). https://doi.org/10.15388/problemos.2013.0.822
Bobulescu, R. (2015). From Lotka ’ s biophysics to Georgescu-Roegen ’ s bioeconomics. 120, 194–202.
Burkett, P. (2003). The Value Problem in Ecological Economics. Organization & Environment, 16(2), 137–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026603016002001
Chee, Y. E. (2004). An ecological perspective on the valuation of ecosystem services. Biological Conservation, 120(4), 549–565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.028
Cleveland, C. J. (1999). Biophysical Economics: From Physiocracy to Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology. Bioeconomics and Sustainability, 617, 125–154.
Cordes, C. (2007). Turning Economics into an Evolutionary Science: Veblen, the Selection Metaphor, and Analogical Thinking. Journal of Economic Issues, 41(1), 135–154.
Costanza, R. (1980). Embodied Energy and Economic Valuation. Science, 210. https://doi.org/10.1126/J
Costanza, R. (1989). What Is Ecological Economics? Ecological Economics. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4876.003.0006
Dale, G. (2020). Rule of nature or rule of capital ? Physiocracy , ecological economics , and ideology. Globalizations, 0(0), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2020.1807838
Daly, H. E. (1993). Steady-State Economics: A New Paradigm. New Literary History, 24(4), 811–816.
Davidson, M. D. (2013). On the relation between ecosystem services, intrinsic value, existence value and economic valuation. Ecological Economics, 95, 171–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.09.002
Dionisio, A., Menezes, R., & Mendes, D. A. (2006). An econophysics approach to analyse uncertainty in financial markets: An application to the Portuguese stock market. European Physical Journal B, 50(1–2), 161–164. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00113-2
Dorninger, C., Hornborg, A., Abson, D. J., von Wehrden, H., Schaffartzik, A., Giljum, S., Engler, J. O., Feller, R. L., Hubacek, K., & Wieland, H. (2021). Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century. Ecological Economics, 179(January 2020), 106824. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106824
Dosi, G., & Egidi, M. (1991). Substantive and procedural uncertainty. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 1(2), 145–168. https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.55071
Dosi, G., & Nelson, R. R. (1994). An Introduction to Evolutionary Theories in Economics. Evolutionary Economics, 4.
Douai, A. L. I. (2009). Value Theory in Ecological Economics: The Contribution of a Political Economy of Wealth. Environmental Values, 18(3), 257–284. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327109X12474739376415
Drakopoulos, S., & Katselidis, I. (2013). From Edgeworth to Econophysics : A Methodological Perspective. MPRA.
Franzese, P.P., Rydberg, T., Russo, G.F., Ulgiati, S. (2009). Sustainable biomass production: A comparison between Gross Energy Requirement and Emergy Synthesis methods. Ecological Indicators, 9 (5), pp. 959-970.
Franzese, P.P., Brown, M.T., Ulgiati, S. (2014). Environmental accounting: Emergy, systems ecology, and ecological modelling. Ecological Modelling, 271, pp. 1-3.
Friedman, M. (1953). Essays in Positive Economics. In University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511581427.002
Galiani, F. (1750). Della Moneta.
Georgescu Roegen, N. (1970). The Entropy Law and the Economic Process.
Georgescu Roegen, N. (1975). Energy and Economic Myths. Southern Economic Journal, 41(3), 347–381.
Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1977). The steady state and ecological salvation: A Thermodynamic analysis. BioScience, 27(4). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203830413
Giocoli, N. (1999). La teoria del valore di Ferdinando Galiani : un ’ interpretazione unitaria. 257–258.
Gómez-Baggethun, E., de Groot, R., Lomas, P. L., & Montes, C. (2010). The history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: From early notions to markets and payment schemes. Ecological Economics, 69(6), 1209–1218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.11.007
Gowdy, J., & Mesner, S. (1998). The evolution of Georgescu-Roegen’s bioeconomics. Review of Social Economy, 56(2), 136–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/00346769800000016
Gramm, W. S. (1988). The movement from real to abstract value theory, 1817-1959. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 12(2), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035056
Halkos, G. E. (2011). The evolution of environmental thinking in economics. MPRA, 35580.
Heinzel, C. (2013). Schumpeter and Georgescu-Roegen on the foundations of an evolutionary analysis. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 37, 251–271. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bes060
Hornborg, A. (1998). Commentary: Towards an ecological theory of unequal exchange: Articulating world system theory and ecological economics. Ecological Economics, 25(1), 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(97)00100-6
Hornborg, A. (2016). Post-Capitalist Ecologies: Energy, “Value” and Fetishism in the Anthropocene. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 27(4), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2016.1196229
Hornborg, A. (2019). The Money-Energy-Technology Complex and Ecological Marxism: Rethinking the Concept of “Use-value” to Extend Our Understanding of Unequal Exchange, Part 1. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 30(3), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2018.1440614
Hornborg, A. (2022). Why ecological economics should not adopt Marxian value theory. Ecological Economics, 193(August 2021), 107334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107334
Jevons, S. W. (1871). The Theory of Political Economy.
Keen, S. (2003). Standing on the toes of pygmies: Why econophysics must be careful of the economic foundations on which it builds. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 324(1–2), 108–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-4371(02)01851-4
King J.E. and McLure M.. (2014). History of the Concept of Value. University of Western Australia - Economics Discussion Papers, 14.06.
Knight, F. (1921). Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. https://doi.org/10.34156/9783791046006-108
Kondepudi, D., & Prigogine, I. (2015). Modern thermodynamics: from heat engines to dissipative structures. In Choice Reviews Online (Vol. 36, Issue 08). https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.36-4495
Kumar, M., & Kumar, P. (2008). Valuation of the ecosystem services: A psycho-cultural perspective. Ecological Economics, 64(4), 808–819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.05.008
Malthus, T. R. (1820). Principles of Political Economy.
Mantegna, R. N., Stanley, H. E., & Chriss, N. A. (2000). An Introduction to Econophysics. Physics Today, 53(12), 70–70. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1341926
Marshall, A. (1890). Principles of Economics. In Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.2307/2956644
Martinez-Alier, J. (2002). The Environmentalism of the poor.
Marx, K. (1951). Theories of Surplus Value.
Marx, K. (1990). Capital Volume I.
Meek, R. L. (1973). Studies in the Labor Theory of Value.
Melgar-Melgar, R. E., & Hall, C. A. S. (2020). Why ecological economics needs to return to its roots: The biophysical foundation of socio-economic systems. Ecological Economics, 169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106567
Menger, C. (1871). Principles of Economics. http://mises.org/Books/mengerprinciples.pdf
Mill, J. S. (1836). On the definition and method of political economy. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819025.003
Mirowski, P. (1989). More heat than light - Economics as social physics: Physics as nature’s economics.
Missemer, A. (2018). Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and degrowth. European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.
National Research Council. (2005). Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision-Making. In The National Academies Press. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/11139
Odum, H. T. (1996). Environmental Accounting: EMERGY and Environmental Decision Making. In John Wiley & Sons.
Odum, H. T., and Odum, E. P. (2000). The Energetic Basis for Valuation of Ecosystem Services. Ecosystems, 3, 21–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s100210000005
Otte B.A. Hons, G. (2014). Deconstructing Value Theory in Economics: A trans-disciplinary historical critique of the supply and demand template. In University of Tasmania. http://www.springer.com/series/15440%0Apapers://ae99785b-2213-416d-aa7e-3a12880cc9b9/Paper/p18311
Pareto, V. (1906). Manual of Political Economy. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-2008-035
Pearce, D. (2002). An Intellectual History of Environmental Economics. Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, 27, 57–81. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.27.122001.083429
Persons, C. E. (1913). Marginal utility and marginal disutility as ultimate standards of value. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 27(4), 547–578. https://doi.org/10.2307/1883442
Pigou, A. C. (1920). The Economics of Welfare. https://doi.org/10.2307/2222816
Pirgmaier, E. (2021). The value of value theory for ecological economics. Ecological Economics, 179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106790
Quesnay, F. (1759). Tableau Economique.
Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. In Chelsea Green Publishing.
Rickles, D. (2007). Econophysics for philosophers. In Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Vol. 38, Issue 4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2007.01.003
Rodríguez, R. A., & Cáceres-Hernández, J. J. (2018). Information, entropy, value, and price formation: An econophysical perspective. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 512, 74–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2018.08.005
Røpke, I. (2021). From value to valuation and appropriation. A comment on Pirgmaier’s paper “The value of value theory for ecological economics.” Ecological Economics, 187(May). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107102
Schinckus, C. (2009). Economic uncertainty and econophysics. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 388(20), 4415–4423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2009.07.008
Schinckus, C. (2010a). Econophysics and economics: Sister disciplines? American Journal of Physics, 78(4), 325–327. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3309424
Schinckus, C. (2010b). Is econophysics a new discipline? the neopositivist argument. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 389(18), 3814–3821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2010.05.016
Schulz, A. W. (2013). Beyond the Hype: The Value of Evolutionary Theorizing in Economics. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 43(1), 46–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393112463336
Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest and the Business Cycle. In Harvard University Press. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1496199
Schumpeter, J. A. (1954). History of Economic Analysis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203983911-11
Simon, H. A. (1964). Theories of Bounded Rationality.
Smith, A. (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In S.M. Soares, MetaLibri Digital Library (Issue 2007). https://doi.org/10.1111/2057-1615.12058
Stigler, G. J. (1958). Ricardo and the 93% Labor Theory of Value. The American Economic Review, 48(3), 357–367.
Turner, R. K., Paavola, J., Cooper, P., Farber, S., Jessamy, V., & Georgiou, S. (2003). Valuing nature: Lessons learned and future research directions. Ecological Economics, 46(3), 493–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(03)00189-7
Ulgiati, S., Zucaro, A., & Franzese, P. P. (2011). Shared wealth or nobody’s land? The worth of natural capital and ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 70, 778–787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.11.015
Veblen, T. (1898). Why is Economics not an Evolutionary Science? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 12(4), 373–397. https://doi.org/10.2307/1882952
Veblen, T. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class.
Veblen, T. (1921). The Engineers and the Price System. In Batoche Books. http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/michels/polipart.pdf
Viaggi, D., Bartolini, F., & Raggi, M. (2021). The Bioeconomy in economic literature: looking back, looking ahead. Bio-Based and Applied Economics, 10(3), 169–184. https://doi.org/10.36253/bae-10881
Vihervaara, P., Franzese, P.P., Buonocore, E. (2019). Information, energy, and eco-exergy as indicators of ecosystem complexity. Ecological Modelling, 395, pp. 23-27.
von Böhm-Bawerk, E. (1894). The ultimate standard of value. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 5(2), 1–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271629400500201
Walras, L. (1874). Elements of pure economics. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315888958.
Wierenga, M. (2003). A Brief Introduction to Environmental Economics. ELAW. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429287855-5.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 157
Number of citations: 0
