Surpassing other natural resource and environmental economics texts available today, this completely updated version of Alan Randall’s classic Resource Economics provides strong connections between environmental problems, economic theory, and the techniques used to evaluate alternative solutions and practical public policy options for sustaining environmental longevity. This book provides a rigorous but very readable introduction to economic theory before delving into the relationship between economic growth and the primary natural resource and environmental problems associated with this growth, namely scarcity and environmental degradation. The text offers both classic and new economic solutions to the vexing contemporary natural resource and environmental problems that nations worldwide are combating.
This thoroughly revised edition of Resource Economics analyzes ecosystem goods and services used in economic production and consumption, and examines how human activity can degrade these goods and services. Further, the book offers concrete suggestions regarding what to do when markets fail to meet efficiency and/or equity goals when allocating natural resources and environmental services. Each chapter concludes with questions for discussion and a suggested readings section including lists of classic and contemporary material related to the chapter’s topics, which instructors will find especially helpful. This text will reach a whole new generation of readers by virtue of its updated material, examples and emphasis on an integrated approach to resource and environmental policy linking economics, ecology, and ethics.
Though accessible to all, this book is ideally suited to students of natural resource and environmental economics, ecological economics, agricultural economics, and general economics and their instructors. Additionally, natural resource, ecosystem and environmental researchers, managers, and policy-makers will find the analyses here of significant interest.
PART I: NATURAL RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND NATURAL RESOURCE SUPPLY AND SCARCITY
1. Economic Growth, Resource Scarcity, and Environmental Degradation: Where have we been and Where are we Going?
2. Ecosystem Goods and Services: How Does a Healthy Environment Support Economic Production, Consumption, and Quality of Life?
3. Resource Supply and Scarcity: How do we Define, Measure, and Monitor Natural Resource Supply and Scarcity?
4. Natural Resources, the Environment, and Policy: What is the Public Policy Context for Natural Resource and Environmental Economics?
PART II: MICROECONOMIC THEORY FOUNDATIONS FOR PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
5. Economic Coordination and the Price System: How Does the Market System Work?
6. Economic Efficiency: How Does a Healthy Economy Allocate Natural Resources to Economic Production and Consumption?
7. Intertemporal Efficiency: How do we Efficiently Allocate Natural Resources Over Time?
PART III: ECONOMIC THEORY AND INSTITUTIONS FOR PUBLIC POLICY
8. Criteria for Economic Policy: How do we Tell a Good Natural Resource and Environmental Policy from a Bad One?
9. Rules of the Game: How do They Influence Efficiency and Equity and How can we Get Them Right?
10. Market Failure and Inefficiency: What Could Cause an Undesirable Market Allocation of Resources?
11. Institutional Framework: What is the Social and Legal Context for Natural Resource and Environmental Decisions and Policy?
PART IV: MEASURING AND COMPARING BENEFITS AND COSTS OF NATURAL RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND PROJECTS
12. Benefit–Cost Analysis: How do we Determine if the Benefits of a Resource Policy Outweigh the Costs?
13. Measuring Economic Values: How do we Account for all Relevant Benefits and Costs in Natural Resource and Environmental Decisions?
PART V: OPTIMAL MANAGEMENT OF NON-RENEWABLE AND RENEWABLE RESOURCES
14. Exhaustible, Non-renewable Resources: What is the Optimal Use and Management of Non-renewable Resources Over Time?
15. Renewable Resources: What is the Optimal Use and Management of Renewable Resources Over Time?
PART VI: THE ECONOMICS OF AIR, LAND, AND WATER RESOURCE USE AND POLICY
16. The Control of Polluting Emissions: How can we Protect the Environment and People from Air Pollution?
17. The Economics of Land: How do Land Markets Work and how do we Manage Land Use?
18. The Economics of Water: How is Water Valued and Allocated?
PART VII: ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS, RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY, AND THE FUTURE
19. Understanding Sustainability: What can Economics Tell us About Using and Managing Resources in a Sustainable Manner?
20. Economics and Environmental Ethics: What are the Ethical Implications of the Economic Approach to Conservation and Preservation and what can we Learn from Other Ethical Approaches?
21. Economic Science, Economic Policy, and Doing the Best we Can: How do we Find Our Way Forward?