Economics of exhaustible resources

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6861763

Rabhan, S A

This dissertation deals with various issues of resource depletion, beginning with a rather comprehensive review of the literature. The resource scarcity is the first issue dealt with, where differentiation is made between Ricardian and Pure scarcities of exhaustible resources. While the Ricardian scarcity is properly acknowledged and modeled in the resource literature, the fact that the resource stocks are always decreasing with extraction (i.e., the pure scarcity) is overlooked. One important conclusion of the scarcity analysis is that the steady-state point defining the equilibrium values for the nonresource output to capital and the resource flow to resource stock ratios, is found to be a moving one, as a result of the increasing scarcity mechanism. Another observation about the literature is that there is a marked bias in favor of long run, developed economies' problems and resource inputs as opposed to the problems of developing economies and resource exports. Thus, a theoretical framework is developed where not only resource inputs and exports are analyzed but resource exports are advanced as a vehicle for development. Within the context of this theoretical framework, it is concluded that optimality dictates that the resource inputs and exports, expressed per unit of the capital stock, be declining over time. Furthermore, the resource exports are proposed as the domestic substitute for foreign aid.

• Research Organization: Georgetown Univ., Washington, DC (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6861763
• 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
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
RESOURCE DEPLETION
RESOURCES
SHORTAGES