The Economics of Natural Resource Use


Book Description

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.




Scarcity and Growth


Book Description

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




Natural Resource Economics


Book Description

The connection between humans and the earth’s natural resources is a topic of vital interest. Concern once centered on whether there were sufficient supplies of natural resources to accommodate the rising demands of growing economies; a newer concern is whether those growing economies will undermine the linkages between humans and the earth’s critical ecological endowments. It is essential to understand the reciprocity of how human decisions affect resources and how resources affect humans. Natural resource economics is one way of framing and analyzing choices about the conservation and use of natural resources made daily by individuals, communities, and nations. The focus of the text is on natural resource valuation, economic incentives, and the institutional arrangements that will produce desired collective outcomes. The fourth edition of this acclaimed text presents the analytical framework of economics in easy-to-understand descriptions for readers who have not yet been exposed to economics. The first nine chapters offer a lucid introduction to fundamental economic principles and their application to questions about natural resource use. Ten topical chapters address specific natural resources. The final two chapters examine natural resource issues encountered in developing countries and the impacts of globalization on the utilization and conservation of natural resources. Topics new to this edition include: equity issues in natural resources decisions, existence value of wildlife, technological change, natural capital, payment for environmental services, rare earths, food security, and collective property rights.




Natural Resource Economics


Book Description

Presents models of renewable and non-renewable resources and provides analytical methods to explore contemporary resource problems.




Environmental and Natural Resource Economics


Book Description

Harris and Roach present a compact and accessible presentation of the core environmental and resource topics and more, with analytical rigor as well as engaging examples and policy discussions. They take a broad approach to theoretical analysis, using both standard economic and ecological analyses, and developing these both from theoretical and practical points of view. It assumes a background in basic economics, but offers brief review sections on important micro and macroeconomic concepts, as well as appendices with more advanced and technical material. Extensive instructor and student support materials, including PowerPoint slides, data updates, and student exercises are provided.




Economics of Natural Resources, the Environment and Policies


Book Description

The economic activities of humanity, particularly during the last couple of cen turies, have had a profound impact on the natural environment. Fast depletion of the world's forest resources, fish stocks, fossil fuels and mine deposits have raised many moral as well as practical questions concerning present and future generations. Furthermore, a number of global environmental problems such as acid rain, the 'greenhouse effect' and depletion of the ozone layer are causing concern throughout the world. What does economics say about the exploitation of nature's scarce resources? This book, which is a much expanded version of an earlier publication, Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment, aims mostly at final-year undergraduates reading subjects such as economics, business studies, environ mental science, forestry, marine biology, agriculture and development studies. There is also a good deal of material - especially in the chapters on fisheries, forestry, valuation and discounting - that post-graduate students may find useful as stepping-stones. The material presented stems from my lectures to final-year students at the University of Ulster during the last 12 years, and some of my ongoing research work. When I moved to Northern Ireland in 1982 I was given a course called 'Economics of Exhaustible Resources' to teach. This has changed its title and focus a number of times along with the structure of the University. My early reading lists included a number of journal articles and books written on the sub ject.




Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management


Book Description

The tools of environmental economics guide policymakers as they weigh development against nature, present against future, and certain benefits against uncertain consequences. From reluctant-but-necessary calculations of the value of life, to quandaries over profits at the environment’s expense, the policies and research findings explained in this textbook are relevant to decisions made daily by individuals, firms, and governments. The fourth edition of Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management pairs the user-friendly approaches of the previous editions with the latest developments in the field. A story-based narrative delivers clear, concise coverage of contemporary policy initiatives. To promote environmental and economic literacy, we have added even more visual aids, including color photographs and diagrams unmatched in other texts. Ancillaries include an Instructor’s Guide with answers to all of the practice problems and downloadable slides of figures and tables from the book. The economy is a subset of the environment, from which resources are obtained, workers and consumers receive sustenance, and life begins. Energy prices and environmental calamities constrain economic growth and the quality of life. The same can be said about overly restrictive environmental policies. It is with an appreciation for the weighty influence of this discipline, and the importance of conveying it to students, that this textbook is crafted.




Encyclopedia of Energy, Natural Resource, and Environmental Economics


Book Description

Every decision about energy involves its price and cost. The price of gasoline and the cost of buying from foreign producers; the price of nuclear and hydroelectricity and the costs to our ecosystems; the price of electricity from coal-fired plants and the cost to the atmosphere. Giving life to inventions, lifestyle changes, geopolitical shifts, and things in-between, energy economics is of high interest to Academia, Corporations and Governments. For economists, energy economics is one of three subdisciplines which, taken together, compose an economic approach to the exploitation and preservation of natural resources: energy economics, which focuses on energy-related subjects such as renewable energy, hydropower, nuclear power, and the political economy of energy resource economics, which covers subjects in land and water use, such as mining, fisheries, agriculture, and forests environmental economics, which takes a broader view of natural resources through economic concepts such as risk, valuation, regulation, and distribution Although the three are closely related, they are not often presented as an integrated whole. This Encyclopedia has done just that by unifying these fields into a high-quality and unique overview. The only reference work that codifies the relationships among the three subdisciplines: energy economics, resource economics and environmental economics. Understanding these relationships just became simpler! Nobel Prize Winning Editor-in-Chief (joint recipient 2007 Peace Prize), Jason Shogren, has demonstrated excellent team work again, by coordinating and steering his Editorial Board to produce a cohesive work that guides the user seamlessly through the diverse topics This work contains in equal parts information from and about business, academic, and government perspectives and is intended to serve as a tool for unifying and systematizing research and analysis in business, universities, and government




Economics of Poverty, Environment and Natural-Resource Use


Book Description

Reduction of poverty is a tremendous and persistent challenge for the global community. Given that the livelihood of millions is at stake, there is an urgent need to reconsider the causes of and the remedies for poverty. Poverty and its reduction are closely linked to the natural-resources base. The quality and bounty of the local environment certainly affect living conditions of the poor and their poverty is often seen as a contributing factor to the degraded condition of the local environment. Teasing apart the direction of causality in this resource–poverty nexus is a serious empirical challenge. This book contributes to an improved understanding of the economic dimensions of environmental and natural-resource management and poverty alleviation. The ten chapters of the book offer an overview of the current knowledge concerning the relation between poverty, environment and natural-resource use. Three sides of the debate receive particular attention. First, the relation between resource use and poverty is discussed from a theoretical point of view. Second, it is questioned whether payments for environmental services or considering values of resources can be an effective tool for stimulating both sustainable resource use and poverty alleviation. Third, alternative strategies to break the land degradation–poverty cycle are discussed.




Natural Resources as Capital


Book Description

An introduction to the concepts and tools of natural resource economics, including dynamic models, market failures, and institutional remedies. This introduction to natural resource economics treats resources as a type of capital; their management is an investment problem requiring forward-looking behavior within a dynamic setting. Market failures are widespread, often associated with incomplete or nonexistent property rights, complicated by policy failures. The book covers standard resource economics topics, including both the Hotelling model for nonrenewable resources and models for renewable resources. The book also includes some topics in environmental economics that overlap with natural resource economics, including climate change. The text emphasizes skills and intuition needed to think about dynamic models and institutional remedies in the presence of both market and policy failures. It presents the nuts and bolts of resource economics as applied to nonrenewable resources, including the two-period model, stock-dependent costs, and resource scarcity. The chapters on renewable resources cover such topics as property rights as an alternative to regulation, the growth function, steady states, and maximum sustainable yield, using fisheries as a concrete setting. Other, less standard, topics covered include microeconomic issues such as arbitrage and the use of discounting; policy problems including the “Green Paradox”; foundations for policy analysis when market failures are important; and taxation. Appendixes offer reviews of the relevant mathematics. The book is suitable for use by upper-level undergraduates or, with the appendixes, masters-level courses.