Energy and Growth
Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801, by Philip James de Loutherbourg
The Energy, Growth and Pollution network was set up in 2003 to link together historians working on the history of energy use and its consequences for the economy and environment in Europe from c.1500 to the present. Countries currently covered by the group’s work include Sweden, Italy, Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The group also collaborates with other scholars working in the field of energy history.
The first stage of the group’s work has consisted of developing a common methodology for quantifying energy inputs into the economy and publishing datasets as the basis for further research, including the first detailed and reliable quantification of consumption of ‘traditional’ energy carriers in the pre-industrial and modern era for a wide range of countries. This provides a reliable quantitative basis for investigation of the role of energy in economic growth, especially the impact and cause of transition between ‘energy carriers’ (wood, coal, oil, natural gas, etc.), reflecting renewed interest in the ‘microeconomic’ foundations of development and the role of resources in facilitating certain regional and national growth trajectories at particular historical moments. Other areas of study include the relationship between energy consumption and income levels in the long-term (energy intensity); CO2 emissions and energy use; prospect for climate change mitigation; energy carrier transitions; and the relationship between technological change and energy consumption. Three of the group’s members, Astrid Kander, Paolo Malanima, and Paul Warde, are producing a general book on European energy history for ‘The Economic History of the Western World’ series of Princeton University Press.
Some of the datasets can now be downloaded. Click on the titles in the ‘national datasets’ section below.
Network meetings have been held once to twice a year since 2003 bringing together core members with other scholars working in the field of energy and economic history. The most recent meeting was held at the University of Lund, Sweden, on energy embodied in international trade flows, on 21st October 2011. This will form the theme of a session at the World Economic History Congress to be held at Stellenbosch, South Africa, in July 2012.
The Group receives support from the Global Euronet and the Centre for History and Economics.
The Group consists of the following researchers:
Kerstin Enflo (Lund)
Publications
National datasets
Warde, Paul, Energy consumption in England and Wales, 1560-2000, CNR, (2007)
Lindmark, Magnus, Estimates of Norwegian energy consumption 1835-2000 (Working paper, 2007)
Malanima, Paolo, Energy consumption in Italy, 1861-2000, CNR (2006).
Kander, Astrid, Economic growth, energy consumption and CO2 emissions in Sweden 1800-2000, Lund Studies in Economic History, 2002.
Energy and economic growth
Kander, Astrid; Gales, Ben; Rubio, Mar; Paolo Malanima, "North versus South: Energy transition and energy intensity in Europe over 200 years", European Review of Economic History 11/2, (2007)
Kander, Astrid & Schön, Lennart, "The energy-capital relation, Sweden 1870-2000", Structural Change and Economic Dynamics (2007)
Kander, Astrid, Schön, Lennart & Enflo, Kerstin, In Defense of Electricity as a General Purpose Technology, ISSN: 1654-3149, Working Paper 2007)
Kander, Astrid & Lindmark, Magnus "Energy consumption, pollutant emissions and growth in the long run -Sweden through 200 years“, European Review of Economic History 8/3, (2004)
Malanima, Paolo, Energia e crescita nell’Europa preindustriale, Roma, La Nuova Italia Scientifica, (1996).
Bartoletto, Silvana "Energy and Economic Growth in Europe. The Last Two Centuries" in B. Chiarini, P. Malanima (eds), From Malthus' Stagnation to Sustained Growth, Rivista di Politica Economica, April-June 2010-2011.
Rubio, M.d.M, Yañez. C, Folchi, M and Carreras, A. 'Modern energy consumption and economic modernisation in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1890 and 1925' UPF Economics & Business Working Papers Nº 1061 (November 2007)
Energy and agrarian society
Kander, A., & Warde, P., Number, Size and Energy Consumption of Draught Animals in European Agriculture (Working paper, March 2009).
Kander, A., & Warde, P., ‘Energy availabilty from livestock and agircultural productivity in Europe c.1815-1913: a new comparison.’ The Economic History Review (2011), pp. 1-29.
Tello, Enric, Cussó I X, & Garrabou, E., "Social metabolism in an agrarian region of Catalonia (Spain) in 1860-1870: Flows, energy balance and land use", Ecological Economics, 58 (2006)
Warde, Paul, Ecology, economy and state formation in early modern Germany (Cambridge, 2006)
Malanima, Paolo, ‘Energy systems in agrarian societies: the European deviation’ in Cavacciochi, Simonetta (ed), Economia e energia secc. XIII-XVIII (2003)
E.A. Wrigley, 'Energy constraints and pre-industrial economies', in Cavaciocchi, Simonetta, (ed.), Economia e energia secc. XIII-XVIII (2003)