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Accounts of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's career usually focus on his pioneer contributions to mathematical economics during the 1930s and his later conversion to a critical approach to economic theory anchored on the entropy law. These disparate moments, however, were connected by Georgescu-Roegen's strong attraction to the study of problems afflicting less developed societies. This began with his work on the agrarian economy of his native Romania, in the late 1940s, under the auspices of Harvard's Russian Research Center. Thenceforth, he embarked on a journey that spawned his early interest in Leontief-type linear models, an extended tour of Southeast Asia commissioned by Vanderbilt University's Graduate Program in Economic Development, and several visits to Brazil during the 1960s. The paper highlights these lesser-known aspects of Georgescu-Roegen's trajectory, examining how he built on neo-populist writings from the early twentieth century to construct an alternative to the mainstream emphasis on industrialization policies.

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen was described by Paul Samuelson as 'an economist's economist'. This book honors him by discussing his theories on a wide range of issues but particularly on environmental and energy economics. It is a dynamic tribute which extends his work to address the problems the human race will face in the 21st century. The book shows how Georgescu-Roegen constructed nothing less than an almost complete theoretical alternative to neoclassical economics. Although best-known for his later work as an environmentalist and his work on energy and material transformation, Georgescu-Roegen also made seminal contributions to the economic theory of utility and production and is considered to be one of the founders of modern mathematical economics. In this book an internationally acclaimed group of contributors including Joan Martinez-Alier, William H. Miernyk, Herman Daly and Cutler Cleveland present discussions on environmental and energy economics as well as mathematical economics, economic development and peasant economies, and bioeconomics. This book serves as an excellent all-inclusive introduction to the work of one of the great economists of the 20th century. This celebration of the contributions made by Georgescu-Roegen will be of interest to environmental and natural resource economists, as well as social and economic theorists. With a dedication by Wassily Leontief and a foreword by Paul Samuelson

Cette contribution vise à analyser les réflexions éthiques qui portent l'approche bioéconomique développée par N. Georgescu-Roegen. L'étude de la bioéconomie à travers ses dimensions physique et biologique nous conduit à appréhender la manière dont le rapport à la nature se construit chez l'auteur et les implications qu'il en tire pour une conduite des activités humaines respectueuse de la biosphère. La conception éthique qui entoure la bioéconomie, et que nous qualifions d'éthique bioéconomique, est ensuite discutée au regard des travaux philosophiques relevant du champ de l'éthique environnementale contemporaine. Cette mise en perspective permet d'envisager dans quelle mesure les questionnements soulevés par N. Georgescu-Roegen ont préfiguré ceux auxquels nous expose aujourd'hui l'ère de l'Anthropocène. Classification JEL : Q56, Q57, B31, D63, Q49

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen edited the English translation of Hermann Heinrich Gossen's 1854 book The Laws of Human Relations and wrote a lengthy introduction to it. His highly appreciative, thoroughly documented study has become a major reference on an otherwise little-known early writer. It suggests that Gossen was unjustly ignored by his contemporaries, just as Georgescu-Roegen felt that his own contributions to economics were insufficiently recognized. Yet it was not only a personal motive that inspired Georgescu-Roegen's editorial enterprise: I show that his original plan was to build a model of consumer choice, drawing on Gossen, to address what he saw as essential theoretical issues. The completion of the book project took almost twenty years (it was not published until 1983), during which external circumstances and analytical difficulties gradually eroded the initial theoretical interests, while a sense of self-identification with Gossen gained prominence. As a result, major issues remained ultimately unsolved. The history of economics, originally intended to aid economic theory-building, became the key for sublimating personal feelings into a broader reflection on science in society, beyond time and space differences.