Competitive pricing of nonrenewable natural resources: cases of increasing costs and of deregulation under uncertainty

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5256115

Drury, R C

This thesis examines the time path of the competitive price for exhaustible natural resources when the current extraction costs increase through time due to the effects of past extraction. The analysis is done within a partial-equilibrium framework. The situation of increasing costs will occur whenever the material differs in its extraction costs and there is choice as to the order in which the material is removed. This thesis also examines the behavior of an exhaustible natural resource sector that is currently under price regulation but where the industry may be deregulated. The knowledge about the possible deregulation date is contained in a general subjective density function which has a continuum of possible dates and their likelihood of being the date of deregulation. The effects on the competitive time paths in a world of certainty of different dates for the removal of price ceilings and price floors are also examined. And there is an examination of the special case where the uncertainty is described by a negative exponential distribution. All the results about regulation and deregulation differ immensely from those of a static analysis.

• OSTI ID: 5256115
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
290400* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Energy Resources
COST
DEREGULATION
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
PRICES
REGULATIONS
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
RESOURCES