Energy and economic growth

Abstract

Market researchers concerned with the growth of markets for industrial goods often require a “back-cloth” scenario that includes a statistical picture against which they can project market trends. One favoured indicator of the propensity to purchase an industrial good is the level of energy consumption per head of market population. A high standard of living, with a concomitant thriving market, and a high level of energy consumption go together. This is inescapable. The high level of output per head necessary for a high standard of living can only be achieved if each worker has access to the right industrial machinery and a lot of power at his elbow. This article, concerned with all sources of energy, from a senior member of the Economics and Programming Branch of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority should partially provide the needed scenario for the industrial market researcher because it suggests: (1) a method for determining the extra energy required to produce any target improvement in economic output; or alternatively, (2) a method of establishing the rate of growth of energy consumption that follows inexorably from a given rate of growth of Gross National Product. Practical examples of the use of the method are given in the text.