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| == '''[[History of economic thought]]''' ==
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| ''by [[User:Nick Gardner|Nick Gardner]], [[User:João Prado Ribeiro Campos|João Prado Ribeiro Campos]] and [[User:Richard Jensen|Richard Jensen]]
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| | ==Footnotes== |
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| Modern economic thought is generally considered to have originated in the late eighteenth century with the work of [[David Hume]] and [[Adam Smith]], and the foundation of classical economics. (Earlier approaches are described in the article on the [[History of pre-classical economic thought]].) The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw major developments in the methodology and scope of economic theory.
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| Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century economists applied deductive reasoning to axioms considered to be self-evident and to simplifying assumptions which were thought to capture the essential features of economic activity. That methodology yielded concepts such as [[elasticity]] and [[utility]], tools such as marginal analysis, and theorems such as the law of [[comparative advantage]]. An extension of the relationships governing transactions between consumers and producers was considered to provide all that was necessary to understand the behaviour of the national economy.
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| The development, in the later 20th century, of systems of [[economic statistics]] enabled economists to use inductive reasoning to test theoretical findings against observed economic behaviour and to develop new theories. By that time, the concept had emerged of the national economy as an open interactive system, and analysis of that concept provided explanations of [[recession|recessions]], [[unemployment]] and [[inflation]] that were not previously available. The application of empirical data and inductive reasoning enabled those theories to be refined and led to the development of forecasting models that could be used as tools of economic management.
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| The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen further theoretical and empirical refinements and significant advances in the techniques of economic management.
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| ===Overview: categories of economic thought=== | |
| Historians categorise economic thought into “periods” and “schools” and tend to attribute each innovation to one individual. This categorization is helpful for the purpose of exposition, although the reality has been a story of interwoven intellectual threads in which advances attributed to particular individuals or schools have often prompted the work of others. For example, the quantity theory of money, which achieved prominence in the twentieth century and is associated with Milton Friedman, was first formulated at least three centuries earlier. Many of those threads that have permeated the categories referred to as "Classical economics" and "Neoclassical economics"—such as the concept of value and the nature of economic growth—had an earlier origin in "Pre-classical economics" (see [[History of pre-classical economic thought]]). "Classical" in economics denotes the adoption in the late eighteenth century of an approach that was inspired by the enlightenment and the methodology of the physical sciences, and had abandoned previous examinations of economics in terms of ethics, religion and politics. Preoccupation with those threads was overshadowed in the twentieth century by the responses of [[Keynesianism]] and [[monetarism]] to the problems of unemployment and [[inflation]], but the development of neoclassical economics started before that time and has continued thereafter. (The boundary between the "classical" and "neoclassical" categories is marked mainly by the rejuvenation of the value thread by the concept of [[utility]] and the associated explanation of price in terms of "[[supply and demand]]".) The introduction of new tools of exploration has since led to the vigorous development of that and other threads, and an expansion in the scope of economics into many new directions.
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| ''[[History of economic thought|.... (read more)]]''
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| ! style="text-align: center;" | [[History of economic thought#References|notes]]
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| {{reflist|2}} | | {{reflist|2}} |
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Latest revision as of 09:19, 11 September 2020
After decades of failure to slow the rising global consumption of coal, oil and gas,[1] many countries have proceeded as of 2024 to reconsider nuclear power in order to lower the demand for fossil fuels.[2] Wind and solar power alone, without large-scale storage for these intermittent sources, are unlikely to meet the world's needs for reliable energy.[3][4][5] See Figures 1 and 2 on the magnitude of the world energy challenge.
Nuclear power plants that use nuclear reactors to create electricity could provide the abundant, zero-carbon, dispatchable[6] energy needed for a low-carbon future, but not by simply building more of what we already have. New innovative designs for nuclear reactors are needed to avoid the problems of the past.
(CC) Image: Geoff Russell Fig.1 Electricity consumption may soon double, mostly from coal-fired power plants in the developing world.
[7] Issues Confronting the Nuclear Industry
New reactor designers have sought to address issues that have prevented the acceptance of nuclear power, including safety, waste management, weapons proliferation, and cost. This article will summarize the questions that have been raised and the criteria that have been established for evaluating these designs. Answers to these questions will be provided by the designers of these reactors in the articles on their designs. Further debate will be provided in the Discussion and the Debate Guide pages of those articles.
- ↑ Global Energy Growth by Our World In Data
- ↑ Countries, organizations, and public figures that have reconsidered their stance on nuclear power are listed on the External Links tab of this article.
- ↑ Pumped storage is currently the most economical way to store electricity, but it requires a large reservoir on a nearby hill or in an abandoned mine. Li-ion battery systems at $500 per KWh are not practical for utility-scale storage. See Energy Storage for a summary of other alternatives.
- ↑ Utilities that include wind and solar power in their grid must have non-intermittent generating capacity (typically fossil fuels) to handle maximum demand for several days. They can save on fuel, but the cost of the plant is the same with or without intermittent sources.
- ↑ Mark Jacobson believes that long-distance transmission lines can provide an alternative to costly storage. See the bibliography for more on this proposal and the critique by Christopher Clack.
- ↑ "Load following" is the term used by utilities, and is important when there is a lot of wind and solar on the grid. Some reactors are not able to do this.
- ↑ Fig.1.3 in Devanney "Why Nuclear Power has been a Flop"
