What is Jevon's Paradox? | Concepts

Jevon's Paradox is the counterintuitive idea that improvements in efficiency (in this case fuel) tend to *increase*, rather than decrease, overall use of that resource (in this case fuel). In 1865, William Stanley Jevons, a British economist, observed that despite significant improvements in coal efficiency in steam engines, total coal consumption actually rose. Rather than saving fuel, efficiency made…