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Fundamentals of Natural Resource Economics
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Natural Resource Economics
A subfield of economics dealing with how societies manage natural resources such as land, water, and minerals, focusing on the supply, demand, and allocation of these resources.
Renewable Resource
Resources that can be replenished naturally at a rate comparable to their consumption, such as sunlight, wind, and biomass.
Non-Renewable Resource
Natural resources that do not replenish at a sufficient rate relative to human consumption, like fossil fuels and minerals.
Tragedy of the Commons
A situation where individual users, acting independently according to their own self-interest, deplete shared resource, leading to eventual detriment for all users.
Externality
A cost or benefit of an economic activity experienced by an unrelated third party, not reflected in the market price.
Marginal Cost
The cost of producing one additional unit of a good or service; crucial for decision-making in resource extraction and pollution.
Marginal Benefit
The additional benefit gained from the consumption or production of one more unit of a good or service.
Sustainable Development
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Resource Depletion
The exhaustion of raw materials within a region due to overconsumption or unsustainable use.
Carrying Capacity
The maximum number of individuals or species an environment can support without degrading the environment.
Ecosystem Services
The benefits humans freely gain from the natural environment and from properly-functioning ecosystems such as clean water, pollination, and flood control.
Opportunity Cost
The value of the next best alternative that is forgone when a decision is made to choose one option over others.
Discount Rate
A rate used to convert future economic benefits and costs to present value, reflecting the preference for immediate benefits over future benefits.
Hotelling's Rule
A principle that states the price of a non-renewable resource should increase at the rate of interest over time, as the resource becomes scarcer.
Resource Curse
The paradox that countries with abundant natural resources tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.
Environmental Kuznets Curve
A hypothesized relationship between environmental degradation and economic development where pollution increases with GDP up to a point, then decreases as income continues to rise.
Command-and-Control Policies
Environmental policies that set legal limits and enforceable regulations for pollution and resource use.
Market-Based Policies
Environmental policies that provide economic incentives for reducing environmental impacts, such as taxes, subsidies, and tradable permits.
Circular Economy
An economic system aimed at minimizing waste and making the most of resources by reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A systematic process for calculating and comparing the benefits and costs of a project, decision or government policy.
Ecological Economics
An interdisciplinary field that focuses on the sustainability of ecosystems and human economic systems, emphasizing the economy as a subsystem of the environment.
Integrated Assessment Models
Models that integrate knowledge from two or more domains into one framework, commonly used in environmental science to assess climate change impacts and policy options.
Contingent Valuation
A survey-based economic technique for the valuation of non-market resources, like the benefits provided by a public good or an ecosystem service.
Total Economic Value
The sum of the use and non-use values that people derive from natural resources and ecosystems, including direct, indirect, option, bequest, and existence values.
Hedonic Pricing
A method for estimating economic values for ecosystem or environmental services that affect market prices, such as the impact of air quality on housing prices.
Travel Cost Method
A method of economic valuation used to estimate the value of ecosystems or sites that are used for recreation, based on how much people are willing to spend to travel to the site.
Marginal Rate of Substitution
The rate at which a consumer is willing to substitute one good for another while maintaining the same level of utility.
Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
A metric used to measure the economic growth of a country, it accounts for the environmental costs and the social factors that are not included in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Bioeconomic Models
Mathematical models that are utilized to manage renewable resources, by incorporating biological and economic information to determine sustainable yields.
Full Cost Pricing
An approach that aims to reflect the true costs of goods and services, including external costs such as environmental degradation and social costs.
Green Accounting
An accounting system that attempts to factor environmental costs into the financial results of operations, providing a more accurate reflection of a company's or nation's performance.
Social Cost of Carbon (SCC)
An estimate of the economic damages associated with a small increase in carbon dioxide emissions, conventionally one metric ton, in a given year.
Environmental Risk Assessment
The process of evaluating the likelihood and consequences of environmental hazards, such as chemical pollutants, to ecological and human health.
Common Property Resources
Natural or man-made resources where one person's use diminishes other people's use and where it is difficult to exclude anyone from using the resource.
Indifference Curve
A graph showing different bundles of goods between which a consumer is indifferent, representing different combinations of two commodities that yield equal satisfaction.
Production Possibility Frontier (PPF)
A curve depicting all maximum output possibilities for two or more goods, given a set of inputs (resources, labor, etc.), assuming all resources are fully utilized.
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
A document required by law detailing the environmental effects of a proposed development project, used to inform decision-makers and the public.
Carbon Credit
A permit that allows the holder to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases; one credit permits the emission of a mass equal to one ton of CO2.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
A technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from cradle to grave (from raw material extraction through to disposal).
Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
An analytical method to quantify flows and stocks of materials within a system defined in space and time.
Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
A quantitative economic technique that represents the interdependencies between different branches of a national economy or different regional economies.
Adaptive Management
A systematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by learning from the outcomes of operational programs.
Ecological Footprint
The measure of human demand on Earth's ecosystems, it compares human demand to planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate.
Greenhouse Gas Inventories
A comprehensive accounting of all greenhouse gases emissions and removals within a given area or sector over a specific period of time.
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