Nature and Economic Society

This book focuses on the interrelationship between nature and the human economy. Building upon his decades of research into classical and Keynesian economics, Tony Aspromourgos here turns his attention to the interrelationship between nature and the human economy. The result is a tightly argued, concise but comprehensive interpretation of that vital issue, undertaken in the framework of a Classical-Keynesian synthesis. The classical dimension is utilization of a surplus approach to production and distribution, and the Keynesian dimension, incorporation of demand-side determination of economic activity levels and growth. In this conception the human economy is understood as a circular flow but an incompletely circular system: crucially dependent upon nature both as a source of finite non-renewable and exhaustible resources for human production and consumption and as the destination or sink, also finite, for the waste and pollution from that production and consumption. This is an introductory account of the subject, providing maximum accessibility by presupposing only basic knowledge of economic analysis and only elementary algebra, but including a wide-ranging guide to further and more advanced relevant literature. Part I provides a comprehensive overview of the Classical-Keynesian approach, in the usual manner of economic analysis, without systematic incorporation of nature. Part II then incorporates the various dimensions of the natureeconomy interrelationship. This book will be of great interest to readers of economic theory, economics and the environment, and heterodox economics.