The events of our time reveal a world where people are more able than ever before to exploit their environment. There are questions about when and how to use resources and about the ability of current institutions to make the appropriate decisions concerning their allocation. Natural Resource Economics explores the positive contribution that economics can make to resolving issues of all kinds: the atmosphere, the land and water, and wild animals and plants. This book establishes a concert framework for thinking about resource allocation that borrows from the familiar microeconomic theory of the firm by elaborating the concept of capital asset management and extends these concepts to deal with the problems of resource utilization. In addition, the idea of market failures is used to justify the assertion that collective action is needed to achieve a more economical allocation of resources when ordinary markets are conspicuously inefficient. The book serves the student who wants to learn
