Ayres was a physicist who turned his eye toward economics and most especially the role of energy in economic and industrial activity. He strongly influenced an

Ayres was a physicist who turned his eye toward economics and most especially the role of energy in economic and industrial activity. He strongly influenced and worked with Steve Keen who has extended this work to a revised version of the Cobb-Douglas production function which includes energy in its account, and explains virtually all of the "Solow residual" of the traditional version which relies only on capital and labour.