The economics of nonrenewable resources addresses some of the most problematic issues concerning the sustainability of the world economy. This comprehensive one volume collection contains forty-six of the most important and influential journal articles by some of the leading scholars in the field. Subjects included are: an introduction to the economics of nonrenewable resources; theoretical foundations for the field; nonhomogeneous resources; exploration and uncertainty; market structure; taxation and global climate change. The collection concludes with a discussion of the empirical research and the extent to which nonrenewable resources constrain economic growth as well as the consistency of the theoretical predictions of Hotelling-type models with actual economic outcomes. With an original introduction by the editor, this collection will be an important resource for students, academics and practitioners.
The chapters in the book cover a broad range of aspects regarding the relationship between natural resource use and long-term economic development. The book surveys existing literature as well as adds to frontier research. In particular, the following topics are studied: incentives for adoption and diffusion of clean technology, resource scarcity and limits to growth, international convergence of energy intensity, and the social norms shaping resource depletion.
Environmental Economics in Theory and Practice provides a thorough and coherent review and discussion of environmental economics. It is a guide to the most important areas of natural resource and environmental economics, including the economics of non-renewable and renewable resource extraction, the economics of pollution control, the application of cost-benefit analysis to the environment, and the economics of sustainable development. The book concentrates on key elements of economic theory, and shows how they can be applied to real-world problems. Particular emphasis is placed on analyzing recent empirical studies from all over the world along with in-depth coverage of various economic models. Each chapter develops the main theoretical results and recent analytic techniques necessary for understanding applications. Throughout the book, results are presented in words, graphs, and mathematical models; brief technical notes inform readers about optimal control theory, the Kuhn-Tucker conditions, game theory, and linear programming. Moving through the laws of thermodynamics to an analysis of market failure, the book turns to the economics of natural resources and pollution control. It concludes with an examination of environmental cost-benefit analysis and sustainable development. A comprehensive text, it is particularly suitable for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental and resource economics. Because of up-to-date coverage, it will also be of interest to professionals working in resource and environmental economics.
This text is a comprehensive examination of the economics of using natural reosurces in the modern economy. Presenting economic concepts essential to examining how resources can be sustained, extracted and harvested extensive use is made of diagrams and accompanying algebraic models.* NEW! This edition of the text features a new organization. The first section is an overview of techniques, the second focuses on static models of natural resource use, and the third examines dynamic models of natural resource use. * NEW! Revised and updated cases use real-world examples and show how they are linked to natural resource modeling. * NEW! Text pedagogy has been improved overall, including a much more extensive use of graphs. * Only current book solely on natural resources (without environmental econ) for all of North America. * The Second Edition stresses the economics of sustainability; continues thorough coverage of land and water use, fisheries, pollution policy, non-renewable resources, and forests. * Advanced chapters are included for use in honors/graduate courses: e.g., parts of Chapters 3, 9, 11, and 12.
A book on the economics of exhaustible resources requires no justification. A long book does. The purist will find disquieting our two-asset, constant population model with which we analyse growth possibilities in an economy with exhaustible resources.
All the solid fuels fossil energy and mineral commodities we use come out of the Earth. Modern society is increasingly dependent on mineral and fossil energy sources. They differ in availability, cost of production, and geographical distribution. Even if solid fuels, fossil energy resources and mineral commodities are non-renewable, the extracted metals can to a large extent be recycled and used again and again. Although the stock of these secondary resources and their use increases, the world still needs and will continue to need primary mineral resources for the foreseeable future. Growing demands have begun to restrict availability of these resources. The Earth is not running out of critical mineral resources – at least for the near future – but the ability to explore and extract these resources is being restricted in many regions by competing land use, as well as political and environmental issues. Extraction of natural resources requires a clear focus on sustainable development, involving economic, environmental and socio-cultural aspects. Although we do not know what the most important resources will be in 100 years from now, we can be quite certain that society will still need energy and a wide range of raw materials. These resources will include oil and gas, coal, uranium, thorium, geothermal, metallic minerals, industrial and specialty minerals, including cement, raw materials, rare-earth elements. A global approach for assessing the magnitude and future availability of these resources is called for – an approach that, with appropriate international collaboration, was started within the triennium of the International Year of Planet Earth. Some global mineral resource assessments, involving inter-governmental collaboration, have already been initiated. The International Year of Planet Earth helped to focus attention on how the geosciences can generate prosperity locally and globally, as well as sustainability issues in both developed and developing countries.
A leading economist develops a supply-side approach to fighting climate change that encourages resource owners to leave more of their fossil carbon underground. The Earth is getting warmer. Yet, as Hans-Werner Sinn points out in this provocative book, the dominant policy approach—which aims to curb consumption of fossil energy—has been ineffective. Despite policy makers' efforts to promote alternative energy, impose emission controls on cars, and enforce tough energy-efficiency standards for buildings, the relentlessly rising curve of CO2 output does not show the slightest downward turn. Some proposed solutions are downright harmful: cultivating crops to make biofuels not only contributes to global warming but also uses resources that should be devoted to feeding the world's hungry. In The Green Paradox, Sinn proposes a new, more pragmatic approach based not on regulating the demand for fossil fuels but on controlling the supply. The owners of carbon resources, Sinn explains, are pre-empting future regulation by accelerating the production of fossil energy while they can. This is the “Green Paradox”: expected future reduction in carbon consumption has the effect of accelerating climate change. Sinn suggests a supply-side solution: inducing the owners of carbon resources to leave more of their wealth underground. He proposes the swift introduction of a “Super-Kyoto” system—gathering all consumer countries into a cartel by means of a worldwide, coordinated cap-and-trade system supported by the levying of source taxes on capital income—to spoil the resource owners' appetite for financial assets. Only if we can shift our focus from local demand to worldwide supply policies for reducing carbon emissions, Sinn argues, will we have a chance of staving off climate disaster.
Exhaustible resources: the theory of optimal depletion; Renewable resources: the theory of optimal use; Resource scarcity: are resources limits to growth? Natural resources and natural environments; Environmental pollution; Some concluding thoughts: the role of economics in the study of resource and environmental problems.
In this classic study, the authors assess the importance of technological change and resource substitution in support of their conclusion that resource scarcity did not increase in the Unites States during the period 1870 to 1957. Originally published in 1963
