{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T08:35:52Z","timestamp":1774946152024,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,23]],"date-time":"2024-08-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1724371200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"FCT\u2014Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UIDB\/00481\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/00481\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"FCT\u2014Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UIDP\/00481\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDP\/00481\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"FCT\u2014Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-022083"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-022083"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Centro Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Centro2020)","award":["UIDB\/00481\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/00481\/2020"]}]},{"name":"Centro Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Centro2020)","award":["UIDP\/00481\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDP\/00481\/2020"]}]},{"name":"Centro Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Centro2020)","award":["CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-022083"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-022083"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Energies"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Thermodynamics is based on its Four Laws structure. Based on Thermodynamics and its Four Laws structure, this work presents and explores its economic counterpart, proposing an economic Four Laws structure to look at Economics through the eyes of Thermodynamics. The Economic Zeroth Law is based on the merchandise economic thermal equilibrium, thus defining the economic temperature. The Economic First Law is based on balance equations for the units of merchandise and monetary species. The economic Second Law is based on the observation that the traded merchandise units are transferred in the increasing unit price direction (in the decreasing economic temperature direction). This allows economic entropy to be defined through a differential equation, as well as the definition of economic irreversibility and economic entropy generation. The economic Third Law states that the merchandise economic entropy of an economic system at the null economic temperature (at an infinite merchandise unit price) is null. Conjugation of the economic Second and Third Laws sets how to evaluate the absolute value of the economic entropy of an economic system. The presented developments setting the proposed economic Four Laws structure introduce and explore a large set of concepts, variables, and relations that are of major relevance for looking at Economics through the eyes of Thermodynamics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/en17174223","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,23]],"date-time":"2024-08-23T12:58:07Z","timestamp":1724417887000},"page":"4223","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["A Four Laws Structure for Looking at Economics through the Eyes of Thermodynamics"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4975-6055","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"V\u00edtor A. F.","family":"Costa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"TEMA\u2014Centro de Tecnologia Mec\u00e2nica e Automa\u00e7\u00e3o, Departamento de Engenharia Mec\u00e2nica, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universit\u00e1rio de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Moran, M.J., Shapiro, H.N., Boettner, D.D., and Bailey, M.B. (2014). Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, Wiley. [8th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"\u00c7engel, Y.A., and Boles, M.A. (2015). Thermodynamics\u2014An Engineering Approach, McGraw-Hill. [8th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bejan, A. (2016). Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics, Wiley. [4th ed.].","DOI":"10.1002\/9781119245964"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Samuelson, P.A., and Nordhaus, W.D. (2010). Economics, McGraw-Hill. [19th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Krugman, P., and Wells, R. (2015). Economics, Worth Publishers. [4th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Costa, V.A.F. (2024). Looking at Economics through the eyes of Thermodynamics. Energies, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/en17112478"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1976). Energy and Economic Myths\u2014Institutional and Analytical Economic Essays, Pergamon.","DOI":"10.2307\/1056148"},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1979). The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, Harvard University Press."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Georgescu-Roegen, N. (2006). La D\u00e9croissance; Entropie, \u00c9cologie, \u00c9conomie, \u00c9ditions Sang de la Terre."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.1080\/00213624.2004.11506672","article-title":"The three Laws of Thermodynamics and the theory of production","volume":"38","author":"Khalil","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Econ. 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Its Appl."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"126261","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physa.2021.126261","article-title":"Economic thermodynamics","volume":"582","author":"Rashkovskiy","year":"2021","journal-title":"Phys. A Stat. Mech. Its Appl."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1239","DOI":"10.1119\/1.19110","article-title":"An economic analogy to thermodynamics","volume":"67","author":"Saslow","year":"1999","journal-title":"Am. J. Phys."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Roddier, F. (2018). De la Thermodynamique \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9conomie, \u00c9ditions Parole."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Carnot, S. (1824). R\u00e9flexions sur la Puissance Motrice du Feu et sur les Machines Propres a D\u00e9velopper cette Puissance, Bachelier."}],"container-title":["Energies"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1996-1073\/17\/17\/4223\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T15:42:30Z","timestamp":1760110950000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1996-1073\/17\/17\/4223"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,23]]},"references-count":18,"journal-issue":{"issue":"17","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,9]]}},"alternative-id":["en17174223"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/en17174223","relation":{},"ISSN":["1996-1073"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1996-1073","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,23]]}}}