Jevons paradox
E530102
Jevons paradox is an economic observation that increased efficiency in using a resource can lead to higher overall consumption of that resource rather than a reduction.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Jevons paradox canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5525310 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Jevons paradox Context triple: [William Stanley Jevons, notableFor, Jevons paradox]
-
A.
Kaldor–Verdoorn law
The Kaldor–Verdoorn law is an economic principle that posits a positive relationship between the growth of output and the growth of labor productivity, often used to explain cumulative and self-reinforcing processes in industrial growth.
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B.
limits to growth
Limits to Growth is a seminal 1972 report and concept in systems thinking that models how exponential economic and population growth can exceed the planet’s finite resources, leading to potential ecological and societal collapse.
-
C.
The Entropy Law and the Economic Process
The Entropy Law and the Economic Process is a foundational work in ecological economics that applies the concept of entropy from thermodynamics to critique conventional economic theory and highlight the physical limits to economic growth.
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D.
Hicks–Kaldor compensation criterion
The Hicks–Kaldor compensation criterion is an economic efficiency test stating that a policy change is desirable if those who gain could in principle compensate those who lose and still be better off, regardless of whether compensation actually occurs.
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E.
Pareto efficiency
Pareto efficiency is an economic concept describing an allocation of resources where no individual can be made better off without making someone else worse off.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Jevons paradox Target entity description: Jevons paradox is an economic observation that increased efficiency in using a resource can lead to higher overall consumption of that resource rather than a reduction.
-
A.
Kaldor–Verdoorn law
The Kaldor–Verdoorn law is an economic principle that posits a positive relationship between the growth of output and the growth of labor productivity, often used to explain cumulative and self-reinforcing processes in industrial growth.
-
B.
limits to growth
Limits to Growth is a seminal 1972 report and concept in systems thinking that models how exponential economic and population growth can exceed the planet’s finite resources, leading to potential ecological and societal collapse.
-
C.
The Entropy Law and the Economic Process
The Entropy Law and the Economic Process is a foundational work in ecological economics that applies the concept of entropy from thermodynamics to critique conventional economic theory and highlight the physical limits to economic growth.
-
D.
Hicks–Kaldor compensation criterion
The Hicks–Kaldor compensation criterion is an economic efficiency test stating that a policy change is desirable if those who gain could in principle compensate those who lose and still be better off, regardless of whether compensation actually occurs.
-
E.
Pareto efficiency
Pareto efficiency is an economic concept describing an allocation of resources where no individual can be made better off without making someone else worse off.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
economic concept
ⓘ
paradox ⓘ rebound effect ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
electricity consumption
ⓘ
energy consumption ⓘ fossil fuel consumption ⓘ raw material use ⓘ transportation fuel use ⓘ water use ⓘ |
| assumes | price elasticity of demand for the resource is significant ⓘ |
| category |
economic paradox
ⓘ
environmental paradox ⓘ |
| clarification |
does not say efficiency must increase consumption in every case
ⓘ
requires sufficiently strong rebound for total consumption to rise above baseline ⓘ |
| concerns | aggregate or economy-wide resource use ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | engineering expectations of reduced consumption from efficiency ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
efficiency improvements can lower effective cost of resource use and stimulate demand
ⓘ
increased efficiency in using a resource can lead to higher total consumption of that resource ⓘ technological progress can increase, rather than decrease, aggregate resource use ⓘ |
| debatedIn |
climate policy discussions
ⓘ
sustainable development debates ⓘ |
| describes | relationship between efficiency and resource consumption ⓘ |
| field |
economics
ⓘ
energy economics ⓘ environmental economics ⓘ resource economics ⓘ |
| firstDiscussedIn | The Coal Question NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstDiscussedYear | 1865 ⓘ |
| firstFormulatedBy | William Stanley Jevons NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| historicalExample | coal consumption in 19th century Britain ⓘ |
| implication |
climate and energy policy may require caps or pricing in addition to efficiency
ⓘ
efficiency policies alone may not reduce total resource use ⓘ technological efficiency gains can undermine conservation goals if demand is unconstrained ⓘ |
| influences |
arguments about limits to growth
ⓘ
debates on decoupling economic growth from emissions ⓘ design of energy efficiency policies ⓘ |
| mechanism |
economic growth enabled by efficiency increases total scale of activity
ⓘ
efficiency lowers effective price per unit of service ⓘ lower effective price increases demand for the service ⓘ |
| namedAfter | William Stanley Jevons NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| oftenMisinterpretedAs | claim that efficiency is always bad ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
backfire effect
ⓘ
decoupling of growth and resource use ⓘ demand elasticity ⓘ energy efficiency ⓘ green growth ⓘ induced demand ⓘ rebound effect ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Jevons paradox Description of subject: Jevons paradox is an economic observation that increased efficiency in using a resource can lead to higher overall consumption of that resource rather than a reduction.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.