• This refers to a form of induced demand wherein efficiency improvements in the use of a resource causes increased consumption of the resource rather than a decrease in its use.
• It was proposed by the English economist, William Stanley Jevons, in his 1865 book The Coal Question.
• Jevons observed that the efficient use of coal made possible by technology actually caused more coal to be extracted and consumed rather than allowing the preservation of existing reserves.
• Technological progress, in other words, only allows people to satisfy demands that could not be satisfied earlier in the absence of an appropriate technology.

Source:TH