ENL Glossary

Where a term has several variations, these are listed under the general term. Thus, "Production efficiency" is listed as "Efficiency - production".

Absorption capacity - labor
A population’s ability to minimize labor cost. This is determined by the population’s size and labor saturation pattern, and by labor distribution.
Absorption capacity - waste
A population’s ability to minimize a waste’s natural cost. This is determined by the population’s size and waste tolerance pattern, and by waste distribution.
Allocation
The social act of assigning an input, or set of inputs, to the production of an intermediate or final output. The output can either remain in the local region or be exported.
Biological flow
One of the three natural flow categories that have biological effects : habitat destruction, utilization of renewables, and expulsion of wastes.
Budget limit
The economic scale that exhausts an environmental budget.
Budget share
The portion of an environmental budget that is allotted to a final output. This allotment is based on the output's marginal health gains, relative to the other final outputs that require the flow.
Constrained capitalist logic
The conservative logic of sustainable well-being. This is equivalent to ENL and ecological economics regarding natural limits, but adheres to capitalist logic with respect to well-being.

Consumption
The assimilation and utilization of outputs in order to satisfy consumption desires.
Consumption capacity
A population’s ability to convert potential value into effectual value. This is determined by the population’s size and satiation pattern, and by output distribution.
Cost - input
The direct and indirect effects of production on health, for the entire duration of these effects. The direct effects are called labor cost, and the indirect effects are called natural cost.
Cost - labor
The health effects of the labor process. Labor cost is positive when labor decreases health; it is negative when labor increases health.
Cost - natural
The global health effects of the environmental changes resulting from production. Natural cost is positive when these effects decrease health; it is negative when they increase health.
Distribution
The social acts of assigning final outputs, labor, and wastes to individuals.
Ecological limit (economy)
An economy's lowest budget limit. That is, the maximum scale that an economy can reach without violating its most restrictive environmental budget.
Ecological limit (output)
A final output's lowest share limit. That is, the maximum quantity that can be produced without violating the output’s most restrictive budget share.
Ecological limit (population)
The maximum population that can be supported, at a specified rate of average per-capita consumption, by an economy at its ecological limit.
Economic logic
The factors that guide an economy’s activities and thus determine its main outcomes - the outputs produced and their quantities, natural flow rates, and the population level.
Economic scale
An economy’s size for a specific output mix.
Economics - contractionary
The economic theory of a contractionary society. It will combine a functional framework with the logic of sustainable well-being as the guiding framework.
Economics - ecological
A heterodox theory that focus on environmental integrity and the economy's optimal scale.
Economics - heterodox
Various progressive economic theories that oppose the narrow mathematical approach and (in most cases) the ideologically conservative stance of the standard discipline.
Economics - Marxian
The theory developed by Karl Marx, which critically analyzes capitalism based on the labor theory of (exchange) value.
Economics - standard
The dominant economic theory of a capitalist society. Also called "neoclassical economics", it both justifies and helps implement the system's economic logic.
Efficiency - allocation
The measure of success in maximizing health from the allocation of inputs. This is a ratio, expressed as a percentage: net gains divided by maximum achievable gains.
Efficiency - consumption
The measure of success in maximizing health from the consumption of final outputs. This is a ratio, expressed as a percentage: effectual value divided by potential value.
Efficiency - distribution
The measure of success in maximizing health in the distribution of final outputs. This is a ratio, expressed as a percentage: effectual value divided by the maximum achievable effectual value.
Efficiency - ecological
The measure of the success in minimizing a natural flow in production. This is a ratio: output quantity divided by flow quantity.
Efficiency - economic
The summary measure of an economy's success in transforming inputs into health. This is a ratio: net gains divided by input quantity.
Efficiency - production
The measure of the success in generating potential gains through production. This is a ratio: potential gains divided by input quantity.
Environmental budget
The maximum rate of a biological flow that does not cause ecological degradation. Thus, the maximum rates of habitat destruction, utilization of renewables, and expulsion of wastes that do not cause cumulative or destructive effects in the environment.
Environmental expenditure
The quantity of a biological flow used in production, relative to its environmental budget. Nonrenewable resources, which have no environmental budgets, are subject to depletion rather than expenditure.
Forgone health
The sacrifice made in allocation; thus, the health that would have been achieved by producing the best alternative output from a set of inputs.
Functional framework
A conceptual structure that addresses an economy's operational mechanisms. A functional framework cannot set economic objectives. Compare: "guiding framework".
Gain
A health increase that considers either consumption or production, but not both. Positive effectual value and negative input cost is each a gain. Compare: “loss”.
Gains
A health increase that results from consumption and production, taken together. Gains are equal to effectual value minus input cost, when the first is greater than the second. Compare: "losses".
Gains - net
Gains minus losses.
Gains - potential
The maximum possible gains from the production of a final output, equal to its delivered potential value (after transportation) minus its input cost.
Guiding framework
A conceptual structure that establishes the objectives that an economy must achieve in order to attain its stated goal. ENL is a guiding framework with the goal of sustainable well-being. Compare: "functional framework".
Human efficiencies
The five efficiency measures (allocation, production, consumption, distribution, and economic) that refer to health in their definitions. Excluded is ecological efficiency.
Humankind - future
People who will be alive in the future, and who will therefore experience the consequences of economic decisions made by present humankind.
Humankind - present
People who are currently alive, and who therefore make economic decisions that will impact future humankind.
Individual net gains
The net gains achieved by an individual from consumption (effectual value) and production (input cost) over a specified period of time.
Input
A resource used in production, such as labor, natural materials, productive assets like machines and buildings, and various services (accounting, legal, janitorial, etc.).
Labor
The human input to production. Labor includes all activities, such as transportation to and from the work site, that are immediately necessary for workers to engage in production.
Labor productivity
The quantity of an intermediate or final output produced per unit of labor time. This is a ratio: output quantity divided by labor time.
Labor saturation
The exhaustion of an individual’s capacity to engage in labor without incurring labor cost, due to the physical constitution of the human body. Labor saturation is analogous to waste tolerance and output satiation.
Limit - impact
The maximum output rate that allows the biosphere to absorb the resulting environmental effects without damage or degradation.
Limit - resource
The maximum sustainable output rate in the absence of nonrenewable resources.
Logic of sustainable well-being
An economic logic designed to guide the economy towards environmental sustainability and human well-being. The author's proposal for the progressive version is ENL. The conservative version is called constrained capitalist logic.
Long run
The relatively long-term future, during which physical as well as behavioral changes are possible in the economy. Compare: “short run”.
Loss
A health decrease that considers either consumption or production, but not both. Negative effectual value and positive input cost is each a loss. Compare: “gain”.
Losses
A health decrease that results from consumption and production, taken together. Losses are equal to input cost minus effectual value, when the first is greater than the second. Compare: "gains".
Lost potential health
The health that is unrealized when an individual dies as a result of consumption or production. The lost health is calculated from the date of death to the expected date of death.
Maldistribution
Distribution that fails to maximize aggregate health. More specifically : the distribution of a final output to consumers who do not have the highest consumption capacities, and the distribution of labor and wastes to individuals who do not have the highest absorption capacities.
Natural flow
An interaction between nature and the economy. Four categories are recognized : habitat destruction, utilization of renewables, expulsion of wastes, and utilization of nonrenewables. The first three are called biological flows.
Need
A consumption desire that increases health when it is satisfied. Compare: “want”.
Negated gains
The reduced gains resulting from the decrease in an output's quantity during rapid contraction.
Negated impact
The reduced environmental impact resulting from the decrease in an output's quantity during rapid contraction.
Negated losses
The reduced losses resulting from the decrease in an output's quantity during rapid contraction.
Optimum scale
The economy's scale where the marginal input cost of total outputs equals their marginal effectual value.
Optimum quantity (final output)
The output quantity where marginal input cost equals marginal effectual value. This is also referred to as the output’s economic limit.
Optimum quantity (intermediate output)
The minimum quantity of an intermediate output required for the optimum quantities of all associated final outputs.
Optimum population
The population level that maximizes a society's average individual net gains based on scale effects.
Output
An object or service that is consumed or utilized. This can refer to either a final output or an intermediate output.
Output - final
An output that is directly consumed or utilized to satisfy consumption desires.
Output - intermediate
An output that is not directly consumed or utilized to satisfy consumption desires, but is instead employed in the production or consumption of other outputs.
Output - irrational
An output whose input cost is greater than its effectual value at all quantities. The optimum and target quantities for such an output are zero.
Output life cycle
All stages of a final output's economic existence, including the extraction of natural resources, the production of associated intermediate outputs, the production of the final output itself, its consumption and maintenance, and its eventual recycling or disposal.
Output losses
The negation of outputs after they have been produced. In the production sphere (during transportation and storage) these reduce potential value. In the consumption sphere (after delivery to points of distribution) these reduce effectual value.
Output rate
The quantity of outputs produced by an economy over a specified period of time.
Overshoot : Impact overshoot and resource overshoot, collectively.
Overshoot - impact
Violation of the impact limit.
Overshoot model
An extension to ENL that makes the three overshoot factors — population, average consumption rate, and ecological efficiencies — clearly visible, permitting effective ENL analysis during overshoot reversal or collapse management.
Overshoot - resource
Violation of the resource limit.

Overshoot reversal
Any combination of rapid contraction and increased ecological efficiencies that reverses impact and resource overshoot.
Physical health index
ENL's preliminary method for measuring an individual's physical health level, thus providing the basis for a prospective health unit.
Production
The economic conversion of inputs into outputs.

Rapid contraction
The sharp decrease in an economy's rate of production and consumption.
Sacrifice
What is given up when inputs are allocated to, and then used in, production. ENL recognizes two types of sacrifice: forgone health, which relates to the allocation of inputs to production, and input cost, which relates to the production process itself.
Satiation
The exhaustion of an individual’s capacity to absorb final outputs without a decrease in marginal effectual value, due to the physical constitution of the human body. Satiation is analogous to labor saturation and waste tolerance.
Scale effects
The opportunities for cooperation, specialization, exchange, and trade that initially accompany a rising population.
Scope - analytical
The set of economic topics for which ENL takes analytical responsibility : humankind's allocation, production, distribution, and consumption.
Scope - geographical
The analyst’s choice of the geographical area to which ENL-based analysis applies. Geographical scope is either global or regional.
Share limit
The quantity of a final output that exhausts a budget share.
Short run
The relatively near-term future, during which behavioral but not physical changes are possible in the economy. Compare: “long run”.
Sustainability
The absence, through reversal or avoidance, of overshoot.
Sustainability - impact
The absence, through avoidance or reversal, of impact overshoot.
Sustainability - resource
The absence, through avoidance or reversal, of resource overshoot.
Sustainable well-being
ENL’s economic goal: the achievement of impact sustainability, resource sustainability, and global well-being.
Target flow rate
For the current population, the natural flow rate required for the production of target output quantities, at the highest achievable ecological efficiencies.
Target quantity (final output)
For the current population, the lower of an output's optimum quantity and ecological limit.
Target quantity (intermediate output)
For the current population, the minimum quantity required for the target quantities of all associated final outputs.
Target population
The lower of a population’s optimum level and its ecological limit.
Target scale
For the current population, the lower of an economy's optimum scale and ecological limit.
Technological complexity
The extent to which technology is employed in the economy. See "technological neutrality".

Technological intensity
The extent to which technology substitutes for autonomous human action in a labor process.
Technological neutrality
The principle that technological complexity is a social choice, and is therefore irrelevant for judging economic performance or progress.
Total outputs
All the outputs produced by an economy.
Trade
The physical movement of an output from the region where it is produced (export) to another region where it is consumed (import). Analytically, trade can arise only when the analyst chooses regional geographical scope.
Value - effectual
The realization of potential value, and therefore the actual health effect from the consumption of a final output. Effectual value can be positive, negative, or zero.
Value - potential
The maximum capacity of a final output, over the duration of its useful existence, to affect health. Potential value can be positive, negative, or zero.
Want
A consumption desire that does not increase health when it is satisfied. Wants are divided into two categories : sanctioned (socially approved) and unsanctioned (socially rejected). compare: “need”.
Waste tolerance
The exhaustion of an individual’s capacity to absorb a waste without incurring natural cost, due to the physical constitution of the human body. Waste tolerance is analogous to labor saturation and output satiation.
Well-being
Part of ENL's economic goal : the achievement of maximum health from production and consumption (individual net gains) plus the satisfaction of all sanctioned wants.

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