Entropy Economics
The Living Basis of Value and Production
Published on 20. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-0-226-84918-8 (ISBN)
Description
Economists dream of equilibrium. It's time to wake up.
In mainstream economics, markets are ideal if competition is perfect. When supply balances demand, economic maturity is orderly and disturbed only by shocks. These ideas are rooted in doctrines going back thousands of years, yet, as James K. Galbraith and Jing Chen show, they contradict the foundations of our scientific understanding of the physical and biological worlds.
Entropy Economics discards the conventions of equilibrium and presents a new basis for thinking about economic issues, one rooted in life processes-an unequal world of unceasing change in which boundaries, plans, and regulations are essential. Galbraith and Chen's theory of value is based on scarcity, and it accounts for the power of monopoly. Their theory of production covers increasing and decreasing returns, uncertainty, fixed investments over time, and the impact of rising resource costs. Together, their models illuminate key problems such as trade, finance, energy, climate, conflict, and demography.
Entropy Economics is a thrilling framework for understanding the world as it is and will be keenly relevant to the economic challenges of a world threatened with disorder.
In mainstream economics, markets are ideal if competition is perfect. When supply balances demand, economic maturity is orderly and disturbed only by shocks. These ideas are rooted in doctrines going back thousands of years, yet, as James K. Galbraith and Jing Chen show, they contradict the foundations of our scientific understanding of the physical and biological worlds.
Entropy Economics discards the conventions of equilibrium and presents a new basis for thinking about economic issues, one rooted in life processes-an unequal world of unceasing change in which boundaries, plans, and regulations are essential. Galbraith and Chen's theory of value is based on scarcity, and it accounts for the power of monopoly. Their theory of production covers increasing and decreasing returns, uncertainty, fixed investments over time, and the impact of rising resource costs. Together, their models illuminate key problems such as trade, finance, energy, climate, conflict, and demography.
Entropy Economics is a thrilling framework for understanding the world as it is and will be keenly relevant to the economic challenges of a world threatened with disorder.
Reviews / Votes
"Entropy Economics makes the case for an economic model that embraces entropy, aligning economic theory with life processes and physical laws-something that has real implications for how we understand markets, power, and regulation." * Institute for New Economic Thinking * "Galbraith and Chen [present] an economic theory that is consistent with life processes and physical laws, focusing on how a biophysical approach can guide us to simple mathematical expressions that describe value and production and are highly consistent with reality." * Journal of Economic Literature * "For most readers, the book will be a step into the unfamiliar...Nonetheless, readers should persevere. They will be enriched by this provocative perspective." * Finance and Development Magazine * "Old theories die hard, especially in economics. Galbraith and Chen offer an elevated understanding of value and production for a world that is anything but steady. Entropy Economics is an essential, critical work for twenty-first-century economics." -- Clara E. Mattei | author of "The Capital Order" "Neoclassical economics has failed, and the call for a paradigm shift seems to pop up everywhere. But to truly move to a new approach to economics, an alternative theoretical foundation needs to be built from the bottom up in full knowledge of what came before. Few are willing, let alone equipped, to take on this task. Galbraith and Chen have done a masterful job by laying out an economics without equilibrium that starts from life processes and physical laws." -- Isabella M. Weber | author of "How China Escaped Shock Therapy" "Entropy Economics is an eloquent call for the abandonment of the equilibrium fetish that characterizes mainstream economics and an exposition of a nonequilibrium economics, grounded in the laws of thermodynamics, with an objective measure of value based on entropy and scarcity. Galbraith and Chen will be part of the foundation for the new economics that we desperately need." -- Steve Keen | author of "The New Economics: A Manifesto"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
16 line drawings, 8 tables
Dimensions
Height: 137 mm
Width: 216 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
322 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-84918-8 (9780226849188)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
James K. Galbraith is professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Jing Chen is assistant professor at the University of Northern British Columbia.
Content
Preface: An Economic Theory Compatible with Life Processes and Physical Laws
1. Economics without Equilibrium
2. No Economy without Government
3. Theories of Value in Economics
4. Scarcity, Information, Entropy, and Economic Value
5. Resources and the Theory of Production
6. Elements of a Biophysical Production Theory
7. A Biophysical Theory of Production in Mathematical Form
8. Life in a World without Equilibrium
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
1. Economics without Equilibrium
2. No Economy without Government
3. Theories of Value in Economics
4. Scarcity, Information, Entropy, and Economic Value
5. Resources and the Theory of Production
6. Elements of a Biophysical Production Theory
7. A Biophysical Theory of Production in Mathematical Form
8. Life in a World without Equilibrium
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index