ABSTRACT
Production has commanded the attention of economists throughout the history of economic analysis. There has been a much smaller volume of literature on the economics of irreproducible assets, among which would be nonrenewable natural resources. Recently, however, a shift of emphasis, if not a major reorientation, may be detected toward a “new conservation” that formulates the natural resources issue in somewhat different terms, having first perceived technology (given tastes) as largely the determinant of the value of particular natural endowments. Taking some liberties, one might look upon natural resources as being “produced” by the advances in technology that permit previously uneconomic stocks of mass and sources of energy to be converted into economic “natural resources.” In short, much of the literature on conservation addressing the distinction between “renewable” and “nonrenewable” resources may be of limited relevance in today’s world. 1
