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Philip Parker

In economic thermodynamics, Philip M. Parker (1960-) is an American economist noted for his 2000 book Physioeconomics, in which an attempt is made to explain the “equatorial paradox”, i.e. that income per capita per country increases with latitude, using physiology and physics. Parker reasons that because humans are homeotherms, i.e. organisms home to a certain requisite internal temperature, that concepts from heat transfer, thermodynamics, and the actions of certain hormones and neurotransmitters on the hypothalamus, can be used aptly to explain variations in utility and consumption. To quote Parker on his overall view: [1]

“The laws most directly applicable to governance of humans are the laws of thermodynamics.”

Parker's theory (physioeconomics), from a thermodynamics and brain physiology perspective, however, is very elementary. Parker seems to reduce the entire mechanism of the brain down to actions of the hypothalamus, postulating that "humans are motivated via chemical processes regulated mostly by hypothalamic activity" and that average yearly temperatures explain production and consumption. The theory is noted though for being one of the first to make connections to brain changes, economic activities of humans, and thermodynamics. It is also one of the few books to use the term “human thermodynamics” (similar to Karlis Ullis), albeit one in which the skin is considered as the boundary of the thermodynamic system, a point of view common in physiology. [2]

Education
Parker completed a PhD in business economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Finance and Banking (University of Aix-Marseille) and Managerial Economics (Wharton), and undergraduate work in mathematics, biology and economics. [3]

References
1. (a) Parker, Philip. (2000). Physioeconomics - the Basis for Long-Run Economic Growth (pg. 76). Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
(b) Author. (2002). “Book Review: Physioeconomics”, Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 22, No. 2, 195-98.
2. ibid (pg. 99).
3. Philip M. Parker (Faculty and Research) – Insead.edu

External links
● Philip M. Parker (Channel) – YouTube
● Philip M. Parker – Wikipedia.

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