Jevons paradox

The Jevons paradox is the economic phenomenon in which technological improvements that raise the efficiency of a resource's use lead to higher, rather than lower, total consumption of that resource. William Stanley Jevons described it in his 1865 book The Coal Question, observing that England's coal consumption soared after James Watt's improvements to the steam engine made coal a more cost-effective power source. Later economists Daniel Khazzoom and Leonard Brookes revisited the idea for energy use, and Harry Saunders called the hypothesis that efficiency raises energy consumption the Khazzoom–Brookes postulate. The article notes considerable debate over its size and relevance, and that some environmental economists propose pairing efficiency gains with policies that keep the cost of use the same or higher.