Knowledge that Transforms

The proposition that limited natural resources provide a limit to growth and to the sustainable size of population is an old one. The natural resource that was the centre of the discussion in Malthus' day was land; more recently, some concern has been expressed over the limitations imposed by the supplies of oil, or more generally, energy sources, of phosphorus, and of other materials required for production. Those who predicted imminent doom in the nineteenth century were obviously wrong. Were they simply wrong about the immediacy of catastrophe, or did they leave out something fundamental from their calculations? There are at least three economic forces offsetting the limitations imposed by natural resources: technical change, the substitution of man-made factors of production (capital) for natural resources, and returns to scale. This study is an attempt to determine more precisely under what conditions a sustainable level of per capita consumption is feasible, to characterize steady state paths in economies with natural resources, and to describe the optimal growth path of the economy, in particular to derive the optimal rate of extraction and the optimal savings rate in the presence of exhaustible natural resources.

Journal Article Incentives and Risk Sharing in Sharecropping Get access Joseph E. Stiglitz Joseph E. Stiglitz Yale University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 41, Issue 2, April 1974, Pages 219–255, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296714 Published: 01 April 1974

Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustible Resources Get access R. M. Solow R. M. Solow Massachusetts Institute of Technology Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 41, Issue 5, December 1974, Pages 29–45, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296370 Published: 01 December 1974

Journal Article Prices vs. Quantities Get access Martin L. Weitzman Martin L. Weitzman Massachusetts Institute of Technology Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 41, Issue 4, October 1974, Pages 477–491, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296698 Published: 01 October 1974

World oil is a mixture of economics and politics. Economic factors indicate competition among producers will again become effective provided the consuming nations do not capitulate in advance. Saudi Arabia is the dominant producer. Efforts on the supply side to develop additional reserves will only shift the exhaustion curve toward the present. Exponential growth in consumption has serious long run implications.