ABSTRACT
The 1970s were unique in that a micro-economic issue, energy economics, suddenly captivated the policy agenda. Not since the 1930s and the Great Depression, had the emphasis of policy makers fallen so squarely on economics. Generous energy research funding fuelled a virtual explosion of energy-related research, attracting a widely diverse group of researchers. Besides varying greatly in equality, the resulting literature varied greatly in breadth, reflecting the different perceptions of what the major policy questions were. Major topic areas included theoretical models of exhaustible resources, cartel theory applications to OPEC, environmental economics, as well as an assortment of energy supply/demand models designed to address some subset of a continually changing menu of policy questions.
