Technological progress that increases efficiency may increase total consumption of a resource.
Jevons observed in 1865 that Watt's more efficient engine increased coal consumption rather than reducing it, because efficiency made coal-powered production worth doing in more places.
In practice
- A firm that halves the energy cost of its process runs it around the clock and uses more energy than before.
- A household that fits efficient lighting leaves more lights on, and the bill falls by less than the specification implied.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Economics & Incentives
- Essay
- Rules for choosing, and the paradoxes that humbled the theory