Resource Economics

A text for students with a background in calculus and intermediate microeconomics and a familiarity with the spreadsheet software Excel.

Jon M. Conrad (Author)

9780521697675, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 June 2010

300 pages, 31 b/w illus. 1 map 49 tables 20 exercises
22.6 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.41 kg

'I wish there had been a textbook such as Jon Conrad's Resource Economics available when I was a young student beginning to learn about natural resource and environmental economics. This is a rigorous but highly accessible mathematical introduction to the field that brings home to the reader the fundamental common threads, as well as the differentiating factors, among nonrenewable, renewable, and environmental resource problems.' Robert N. Stavins, Harvard University

Resource Economics is a text for students with a background in calculus and intermediate microeconomics and a familiarity with the spreadsheet software Excel. The book covers basic concepts (Chapter 1), shows how to set up spreadsheets to solve simple dynamic allocation problems (Chapter 2), and presents economic models for fisheries, forestry, nonrenewable resources, and stock pollutants (Chapters 3–6). Chapter 7 examines the maximin utility criterion when the utility of a generation depends on consumption of a manufactured good, harvest from a renewable resource, and extraction from a nonrenewable resource. Within the text, numerical examples are posed and solved using Excel's Solver. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter. These problems help make concepts operational, develop economic intuition, and serve as a bridge to the study of real-world problems in resource management.

1. Basic concepts
2. Solving numerical allocation problems using Excel's Solver
3. The economics of fisheries
4. The economics of forestry
5. The economics of nonrenewable resources
6. Stock pollutants
7. Maximin utility with renewable and nonrenewable resources.

Subject Areas: Environmental science, engineering & technology [TQ], Environmental economics [KCN], Economics, finance, business & management [K]