1. Introduction, 523. — 2. Technology, 525. – 3. Objective function, 529. — 4. Optimal investment policy, 534. — 5. Decision rules, 537.

In this paper I construct and analyze a simple mathematical model for the commercial exploitation of a natural animal population. The model takes into account the response of the population to harvesting pressure, the increasing harvesting costs associated with decreasing population levels, and the preference of the harvesters for present over future revenues. The principal conclusion of the analysis is that, depending on certain easily stated biological and economic conditions, extermination of the entire population may appear as the most attractive policy, even to an individual resource owner.

Decision rules for stabilization policy in an open economy are examined under alternative specifications of the balance of payments. In particular, distinction between interest-sensitive debt capital and equity capital which responds to an activity variable alters the comparative static properties of instrument assignment. Various aspects of dynamic adjustment are further investigated in a context in which time is endogenous and in which the decision process minimizes a criterion function. It is shown that traditional one-to-one pairing of targets and controls may be inferior to assignment of clusters of instruments to some targets for specified time intervals.