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This paper presents a societal level exergy analysis approach developed to analyse transitions in the way that energy is supplied and contributes to economic growth in the UK, the US, Austria and Japan, throughout the last century. We assess changes in exergy and useful work consumption, energy efficiency and related GDP intensity measures of each economy. The novel data provided elucidate certain characteristics of divergence and commonality in the energy transitions studied. The results indicate that in each country the processes of industrialization, urbanisation and electrification are characterised by a marked increase in exergy and useful work supplies and per capita intensities. There is a common and continuous decrease in the exergy intensity of GDP. Moreover for each country studied the trend of increasing useful work intensity of GDP reversed in the early 1970s coincident with the first oil crisis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There is no study on the linkage between the quaternary sector and economic development. The present study contributes to the existing literature by analysing the patterns of development of quaternary sector and its implication to the economic development and growth in Japan over the periods 1970-2008. The study uses disaggregated data from Japanese Industrial Productivity database, and multivariate VAR method for the empirical analysis. The findings show a significant role of quaternary activities in the development of Japan economy. The evolution of development of quaternary sector is mainly due to the development of activities of security and care. Also there is bidirectional causality between the quaternary sector and the economic development in Japan. Quaternary sector is very crucial for the economic development and growth. Hence, the practicable measures should be taken to accelerate the development of quaternary sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]