Economics of the Anthropocene Age

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxix

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2. Economic Growth with Social Maladies

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 1-37

3. Power Structure and Democracy

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 39-87

4. Evolutionary Human Behavior

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 89-112

5. Consumerism in the Economic Growth Process

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 113-152

6. Individual Freedom and the Common Good

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 153-181

7. Anthropocene Age Economics

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 183-222

8. New Economic Principles for the Anthropocene Age

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 223-253

9. Epilogue

   • Adolfo Figueroa

   Pages 255-262

10. Back Matter

    Pages 263-272

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This book uses Figueroa’s unified theory of capitalism to explain how economic growth has led to a new epoch, the Anthropocene, and it presents a new set of economic principles that are needed in this new age. The policies presented in the book are derived from an empirically corroborated scientific theory. Therefore, this book is unique in its discussion of public policy as the result of scientific knowledge, rather than based on ideology or private interests. In the new epoch we have entered, man is now the main factor in the fate of the Earth, and in social terms, the Anthropocene age also implies a period of high and persistent income inequality in the capitalist system, with the consequence of social disorder. Figueroa considers these conditions and addresses fundamental problems of our time, such as the ideal organization of production and distribution, and the functionality of a zero-growth society. Standard economics would approach these problems under the assumption
that we still live in the Holocene age, but in this book, Figueroa both explains and develops new economic principles for this new context.

• economic principles
• economic growth
• capitalism
• unified theory of capitalism
• income inequality
• zero-growth society
• public policy

“Figueroa takes us on a journey to understand the synergies between economic growth, income inequality, and environmental degradation within an overarching framework entitled ‘unified theory’. … The overall framework gives an evolutionary system of human interactions which accounts for both biological and social needs and shows how these are shaped by social environment.” (Aurelie Charles, The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 54 (8), 2018)

• Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru

  Adolfo Figueroa

Adolfo Figueroa is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. He is the author of two previous books with Palgrave Macmillan, Growth, Employment, Inequality, and the Environment (2015) and Rules for Scientific Research in Economics (2016).

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