“One is the detailed production representation becoming available to the public with a statutory requirement for all companies of a certain size (public and private) to quantify their TEMS inputs and outputs, similar to the way public companies are required to publish financial reports to the SEC”
Currently the Bureu of Economic Analysis (BEA) in US summarizes inter sector relations in input output tables.
All this information is produced in monetary terms, because there is not other way to aggregate; One square kilometer of Manhattan can be hundreds or thousands times more valuable than the same “space” in rural Wyoming. Different energy sources, measured in “caloric equivalents” are extremely different in terms of cost of production and value (imagine the same Jules of coal vs. electricity!).
“Regarding subjectivity, yes, I agree that a portion of value is subjective, but I also think that it is objective.”
In economics, prices are a sufficient statistic that summarizes the subjective valuation of individuals AND the objective scarcity of each commodity. Micro economics (Competitive General Equilibrium is the canonical model) is the theory on how subjective demand and objective “production possibilities” produce price and quantities of each commodity.
Regarding economic theory, before you can change it you need to climb to the shoulders of the giants on which we stand. Only after you have assimilated microeconomics (either the reasonable advanced Micro book of Varian or the monumental Mas Collel) you can make relevant contributions. I want more centrality for natural resources and production economics, but there is an enormous body of knowledge on this fields, that in my view is the most solid (while not very central!) part of Economics.
Yes, Pigovian taxation is the natural way to deal with externalities. I summarize my position now: our economic theory is sound, and new foundations are not necessary. There is enormous room for improvement in “social engeneering”, and representation of production.
A last link. Probably what you are trying to do is EIO-LCA:
The original tool from Carnegie Mellon looks discontinued, but there are papers from 2019 (second lik above) and some other commercial tools (https://vitalmetrics.com/ghg-accounting).
“One is the detailed production representation becoming available to the public with a statutory requirement for all companies of a certain size (public and private) to quantify their TEMS inputs and outputs, similar to the way public companies are required to publish financial reports to the SEC”
Currently the Bureu of Economic Analysis (BEA) in US summarizes inter sector relations in input output tables.
https://www.bea.gov/resources/methodologies/concepts-methods-io-accounts
In Europe we have the KLEMS project for additional information on capital, labout, etc:
https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-research-and-databases/economic-databases/eu-klems-capital-labour-energy-materials-and-service_en
All this information is produced in monetary terms, because there is not other way to aggregate; One square kilometer of Manhattan can be hundreds or thousands times more valuable than the same “space” in rural Wyoming. Different energy sources, measured in “caloric equivalents” are extremely different in terms of cost of production and value (imagine the same Jules of coal vs. electricity!).
http://www.sterndavidi.com/Publications/Aggregation.pdf
Finally the most important:
“Regarding subjectivity, yes, I agree that a portion of value is subjective, but I also think that it is objective.”
In economics, prices are a sufficient statistic that summarizes the subjective valuation of individuals AND the objective scarcity of each commodity. Micro economics (Competitive General Equilibrium is the canonical model) is the theory on how subjective demand and objective “production possibilities” produce price and quantities of each commodity.
Regarding economic theory, before you can change it you need to climb to the shoulders of the giants on which we stand. Only after you have assimilated microeconomics (either the reasonable advanced Micro book of Varian or the monumental Mas Collel) you can make relevant contributions. I want more centrality for natural resources and production economics, but there is an enormous body of knowledge on this fields, that in my view is the most solid (while not very central!) part of Economics.
This is a very helpful post, thank you. I especially appreciate the names and the resources.
I think where I would disagree is that price is a sufficient statistic, especially for externalities.
Your assessment would be that those need to be taxed into price?
Yes, Pigovian taxation is the natural way to deal with externalities. I summarize my position now: our economic theory is sound, and new foundations are not necessary. There is enormous room for improvement in “social engeneering”, and representation of production.
A last link. Probably what you are trying to do is EIO-LCA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIO-LCA
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/economic-input-output-life-cycle-assessment
The original tool from Carnegie Mellon looks discontinued, but there are papers from 2019 (second lik above) and some other commercial tools (https://vitalmetrics.com/ghg-accounting).