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Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, born Nicolae Georgescu (4 February 1906 – 30 October 1994) was a Romanian American mathematician, statistician and economist. He is best known today for his 1971 magnum opus ''The Entropy Law and the Economic Process'', where he argued that all natural resources are irreversibly degraded when put to use in economic activity. A paradigm founder in economics, Georgescu-Roegen's work was seminal in establishing ecological economics as an independent academic subdiscipline in economics. Several economists have hailed Georgescu-Roegen as a man who lived ahead of his time, and his magnum opus was acclaimed by one of his closest peers as 'a landmark' in economics.〔 〔 Historians of economic thought have proudly proclaimed that the man's work has 'heralded a conceptual overturn' in economics, and that the man himself was the most 'able and imaginative' economist of the 20th century.〔 〔 In spite of candid appreciation such as this, Georgescu-Roegen was never awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, although benefactors from his native Romania were active lobbying in his support in order to have him win it.〔 After Georgescu-Roegen's death, his work was praised by a surviving friend of the highest rank: Prominent Keynesian economist, economics textbook author and Nobel Prize laureate Paul Samuelson stated that he would be delighted if the fame Georgescu-Roegen did not fully realise in his own lifetime would be granted by posterity instead.〔 In the history of economic thought, Georgescu-Roegen was the first economist of some standing to theorise on the premise that all of Earth's mineral resources will eventually be exhausted at some point.〔 〔 In his magnum opus, Georgescu-Roegen argues that economic scarcity is rooted in physical reality; that all natural resources are irreversibly degraded when put to use in economic activity; that the carrying capacity of Earth — that is, Earth's capacity to sustain human populations and consumption levels — is bound to decrease sometime in the future as Earth's finite stock of mineral resources is presently being extracted and put to use; and consequently, that the world economy as a whole is heading towards an inevitable future collapse.〔 Due to the pessimism inherent in his work, based on the physical concept of entropy, the theoretical position of Georgescu-Roegen and his followers was later termed 'entropy pessimism' by one of his peers.〔 As he brought natural resource flows into economic modelling and analysis, Georgescu-Roegen's work was seminal in establishing ecological economics as an independent academic subdiscipline in economics in the 1980s.〔 〔 〔 〔 Also, the degrowth movement that formed in France and Italy in the early 2000s recognises Georgescu-Roegen as the main intellectual figure inspiring their movement.〔 〔 〔 In effect, by the 2010s Georgescu-Roegen has educated, influenced and inspired at least three generations of economists, including his own contemporary peers, younger ecological economists, still younger degrowth theorists and activists, and others around the world. In the 1980s, Georgescu-Roegen's work was popularised and promoted by trendspotter and political advisor Jeremy Rifkin in his controversial and widely publicised book on ''Entropy: A New World View''.〔 The inability or reluctance of most mainstream economists to recognise Georgescu-Roegen's work has been ascribed to the fact that much of his work reads like applied physics rather than economics, as this latter subject is generally taught and understood today.〔 〔 〔 Georgescu-Roegen's work was marred somewhat by mistakes caused by his insufficient understanding of the physical science of thermodynamics. These mistakes have since generated some controversy, involving both physicists and ecological economists.〔 〔 〔 〔 Early in his life, Georgescu-Roegen was the student and mentee of Joseph Schumpeter, who taught that irreversible evolutionary change and 'creative destruction' are inherent in capitalism.〔 Later in his life, Georgescu-Roegen was the teacher and mentor of Herman Daly, who since developed the concept of a steady-state economy to put permanent government restrictions on the flow of natural resources through the (world) economy.〔 In 2012, two awards in honour of Georgescu-Roegen's life and work were established by The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India: The Georgescu-Roegen Annual Awards. Japanese ecological economist Kozo Mayumi, a student of Georgescu-Roegen in the 1980s, was the first scholar to receive the award in the 'unconventional thinking' category.〔 == Life and career == The life of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (born Nicolae Georgescu) spanned most of the 20th century, from 1906 to 1994. In his native Romania, he lived through two world wars and three dictatorships. Living in exile in the US in the second part of his life, he witnessed at a distance the rise and fall of communism in Romania. He made many important contributions to mainstream neoclassical economics before he finally turned against it and published his paradigmatic magnum opus on ''The Entropy Law and the Economic Process''. Although this opus was seminal in establishing ecological economics as an independent academic subdiscipline in economics, Georgescu-Roegen died disappointed and bitter that his paradigmatic work did not receive the appreciation he had expected for it in his own lifetime. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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