Energy use and economic output for Argentina

PARUELO, J. M.; APHALO P.J.; HALL C.A.S. ; GIBSON D.

Environmental Economics: The Analysis of a Major Interface.

Roland Leimgruber

Lugar: Ginebra; Año: 1987; p. 169 - 184

We analyze the characteristics and problems of the Argentine economy from a thermodynamic perspective, with special emphasis on the impact of physical constraints, such as natural resource quality and energy availability, on the economic process. Several hypotheses about the relations that exist between economic output and total energy consumption, derived intially for the United States economy, were tested for Argentina. Corrections were made for the effects of payment of interest on the foreign debt and for the solar energy input to the barely industrialized agricultural sector. The analysis of the data for Argentina shows, as has been found for United States, a close relationship between energy use and economic output. Many of the problems of Argentina's economy can be attributed to a populating growing more rapidly than the energy base, a growing proportion of energy use required to service the debt, and a declining energy return on investment for petroleum and gas. The solar energy input appears significant for Argentina but not for the United States due, apparently, to the importance of the rich agriculture of the Pampas. The payment of interest on the foreign debt is the main determinant of the decline of the energetic efficiency of the Argentine economy during the last decade, and may foreshadow similar future problems for United States.