ABSTRACT

Natural Resource Economics: The Essentials offers a policy-oriented approach to the increasingly influential field of natural resource economics that is based upon a solid foundation of economic theory and empirical research. Students will not only leave the course with a firm understanding of natural resource economics, but they will also be exposed to a number of case studies showing how underlying economic principles provide the basis for specific natural resource policies. Including current data and research studies, this key text also highlights what insights can be derived from the actual experience.

Key features include:

  • Extensive coverage of the major issues including energy, recyclable resources, water policy, land conservation and management, forests, fisheries, other ecosystems, and sustainable development;
  • Introductions to the theory and method of natural resource economics including externalities, experimental and behavioral economics, benefit-cost analysis, and methods for valuing the services provided by the environment;
  • Boxed ‘Examples’ and ‘Debates’ throughout the text which highlight global examples and major points for deeper discussions.

The text is fully supported with end-of-chapter summaries, discussion questions, and self-test exercises in the book, as well as with multiple-choice questions, simulations, references, slides, and an instructor’s manual on the Companion Website. This text is adapted from the best-selling Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, 11th edition, by the same authors.

chapter Chapter 1|16 pages

Visions of the Future

chapter Chapter 2|28 pages

The Economic Approach

Property Rights, Externalities, and Environmental Problems

chapter Chapter 3|28 pages

Evaluating Trade-Offs

Benefit-Cost Analysis and Other Decision-Making Metrics

chapter Chapter 4|33 pages

Valuing the Environment

Methods

chapter Chapter 5|16 pages

Dynamic Efficiency and Sustainable Development

chapter Chapter 6|22 pages

Depletable Resource Allocation

The Role of Longer Time Horizons, Substitutes, and Extraction Cost

chapter Chapter 7|26 pages

Energy

The Transition from Depletable to Renewable Resources

chapter Chapter 8|26 pages

Recyclable Resources

Minerals, Paper, Bottles, and E-Waste

chapter Chapter 9|35 pages

Water

A Confluence of Renewable and Depletable Resources

chapter Chapter 10|17 pages

A Locationally Fixed, Multipurpose Resource

Land

chapter Chapter 11|22 pages

Storable, Renewable Resources

Forests

chapter Chapter 12|34 pages

Common-Pool Resources

Commercially Valuable Fisheries

chapter Chapter 13|26 pages

Ecosystem Goods and Services

Nature’s Threatened Bounty

chapter Chapter 14|24 pages

The Quest for Sustainable Development

chapter Chapter 15|10 pages

Visions of the Future Revisited