ABSTRACT
The historical development of the doctrine that natural resource scarcity and economic growth are in fundamental opposition to each other has been briefly traced. Our survey of contemporary and historical beliefs showed that this doctrine embodies three propositions: (1) Natural resources are economically scarce, and become increasingly so with the passage of time. (2) The scarcity of resources opposes economic growth. And (3) ultimately economic growth is prevented by natural resource scarcity. We turn now to a systematic examination of this doctrine, the classical doctrine of diminishing returns to social scale.
