2. In energy/environment we tend to refer to such effects as
“rebound” when behavioral adjustment compensates part of the originally enable saving (energy consumption doesn’t go down so much as better window insulation means people afford to keep the house warmer) and
“backfiring” when behavioral adjustment means we overcompensate (let’s assume flights become very efficient, and everyone who today wouldn’t have been flying because of cost or environmental conscience, starts to fly all the time, so even more energy is consumed in the end)
3. In economics (though more generally than only the compensation effects you mention): “equilibrium” effects; indeed famously often offsetting effects in the place where an original perturbation occurred, although as mentioned by Gunnar_Zarncke, maybe overall there is often simply a diffusion of the benefits to overall society. Say, with competitive markets in labor & goods, and making one product becomes more efficient: Yes, you as a worker in that sector won’t benefit specifically from the improvement in the long run, but as society overall we slightly expanded our Pareto frontier of how much stuff we like we can produce.
Three related effects/terms:
1. Malthusian Trap as the maybe most famous example.
2. In energy/environment we tend to refer to such effects as
“rebound” when behavioral adjustment compensates part of the originally enable saving (energy consumption doesn’t go down so much as better window insulation means people afford to keep the house warmer) and
“backfiring” when behavioral adjustment means we overcompensate (let’s assume flights become very efficient, and everyone who today wouldn’t have been flying because of cost or environmental conscience, starts to fly all the time, so even more energy is consumed in the end)
3. In economics (though more generally than only the compensation effects you mention): “equilibrium” effects; indeed famously often offsetting effects in the place where an original perturbation occurred, although as mentioned by Gunnar_Zarncke, maybe overall there is often simply a diffusion of the benefits to overall society. Say, with competitive markets in labor & goods, and making one product becomes more efficient: Yes, you as a worker in that sector won’t benefit specifically from the improvement in the long run, but as society overall we slightly expanded our Pareto frontier of how much stuff we like we can produce.