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The Unity of Science and Economics

A New Foundation of Economic Theory

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jing Chen

    1. School of Business, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada

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  • Presents a new economic theory linking basic biophysical principles to decision making by individuals and institutions
  • Provides an integrated understanding of the social, biological, and physical aspects of economic systems
  • Includes a detailed analysis of practical policy options and social structures in a world of increasing resource costs
  • Features an economic analysis of human mind and scientific theories
  • Presents an entropy theory of mind for a unified understanding of resources, information processing, and economics
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
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  2. Major Factors in Biological and Social Systems

    • Jing Chen
    Pages 1-20

  3. Resource and Technology

    • Jing Chen
    Pages 21-40

  4. Production: A Mathematical Theory

    • Jing Chen
    Pages 41-65

  5. Languages and Cultures: An Economic Analysis

    • Jing Chen
    Pages 67-74

  6. The Entropy Theory of Mind

    • Jing Chen
    Pages 75-108

  7. The Entropy Theory of Value: A Mathematical Theory

    • Jing Chen
    Pages 109-123

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 125-136
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Keywords

About this book

This book presents a new economic theory developed from physical and biological principles. It explains how technology, social systems and economic values are intimately related to resources. Many people have recognized that mainstream (neoclassical) economic theories are not consistent with physical laws and often not consistent with empirical patterns, but most feel that economic activities are too complex to be described by a simple and coherent mathematical theory. While social systems are indeed complex, all life systems, including social systems, satisfy two principles. First, all systems need to extract resources from the external environment to compensate for their consumption. Second, for a system to be viable, the amount of resource extraction has to be no less than the level of consumption. From these two principles, we derive a quantitative theory of major factors in economic activities, such as fixed cost, variable cost, discount rate, uncertainty and duration. The mathematical theory enables us to systematically measure the effectiveness of different policies and institutional structures at varying levels of resource abundance and cost.The theory presented in this book shows that there do not exist universally optimal policies or institutional structures. Instead, the impacts of different policies or social structures have to be measured within the context of existing levels of resource abundance. As the physical costs of extracting resources rise steadily, many policy assumptions adopted in mainstream economic theories, and workable in times of cheap and abundant energy supplies and other resources, need to be reconsidered. In this rapidly changing world, the theory presented here provides a solid foundation for examining the long-term impacts of today's policy decisions.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Business, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada

    Jing Chen

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