What is Jevons paradox?
[[File:CottonopolisCropped.jpg|alt=Engraving of a view of Manchester from a distance, showing factories, smokestacks, and smoke.|right|thumb|300x300px|Coal-burning factories in [[Cottonopolis|19th-century Manchester]], England. Improved technology allowed coal to fuel the [[Industrial Revolution]], greatly increasing the consumption of coal.]] In [[economics]], '''Jevons paradox''' is a [[paradox]] about [[Natural resource|resource]] usage. It is also called '''Jevons effect''', after [[William Stanley Jevons]] who first observed it in 1865. Jevons observed that the [[steam engine]] [[James Watt]] had developed was much more [[Efficiency|efficient]] that the earlier model of [[Thomas Newcomen]]. Despite this, the use of [[coal]] in [[England]] increased. The improvements James Watt had introduced made coal a cheap source of [[energy]]. As a consequence, Watt's steam engine was more popular, and its use was more widespread. So even though each steam engine used less coal, the [[demand]] for coal increased, as there were more steam engines. {{paradoxes}} [[Category:Economic theories]]