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Pricing the Limits to Growth from Minerals Depletion

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  • Martin L. Weitzman

Abstract

This paper evaluates the loss of global welfare from exhaustion of nonrenewable resources, such as oil. The underlying methodology represents an empirical application of some recent developments in the theory of green accounting and sustainability. The paper estimates that the world loses the equivalent of about 1 percent of final consumption per year from finiteness of the earth's resources, compared with a counterfactual trajectory where global extraction of minerals is allowed to remain forever constant at today's flow rates and extraction costs.

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  • Martin L. Weitzman, 1999. "Pricing the Limits to Growth from Minerals Depletion," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 691-706.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:114:y:1999:i:2:p:691-706.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1162/003355399556025
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    1. Weitzman, Martin L. & Lofgren, Karl-Gustaf, 1997. "On the Welfare Significance of Green Accounting as Taught by Parable," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 139-153, February.
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    2. Rubio, M. del Mar, 2004. "The capital gains from trade are not enough: evidence from the environmental accounts of Venezuela and Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 1175-1191, November.
    3. Klaas Lenaerts & Simone Tagliapietra & Guntram B. Wolff, 2022. "The Global Quest for Green Growth: An Economic Policy Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-14, May.
    4. Eoin McLaughlin & Cristián Ducoing & Les Oxley, 2024. "Tracing Sustainability in the Long Run: Genuine Savings Estimates 1850–2018," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Perspective, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Mideksa, Torben K., 2013. "The economic impact of natural resources," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 277-289.
    6. McLaughlin, Eoin & Ducoing, Cristián & Hanley, Nick, 2024. "Challenges of wealth-based sustainability metrics: A critical appraisal," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    7. Asheim, Geir B. & Hartwick, John M., 2011. "Anomalies in green national accounting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2303-2307.
    8. Harris, Michael & Pearson, Leonie J., 2004. "Using 'Inclusive Wealth' to Measure and Model Sustainable Development in Australia: A working example," 2004 Conference (48th), February 11-13, 2004, Melbourne, Australia 58457, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    9. Ayres, Robert U., 2008. "Sustainability economics: Where do we stand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 281-310, September.
    10. Farhad Nili & Gabriel Talmain, "undated". "Rent-seeking, Occupational Choice and Oil Boom," Discussion Papers 01/11, Department of Economics, University of York.
    11. Simon, György, 2001. "Növekedési mechanizmus - növekedési modell [Growth mechanism - growth model]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 185-202.
    12. Brock, William A. & Taylor, M. Scott, 2005. "Economic Growth and the Environment: A Review of Theory and Empirics," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 28, pages 1749-1821, Elsevier.
    13. Matthias Blum & Cristián Ducoing & Eoin McLaughlin, 2016. "Genuine Savings in developing and developed countries, 1900-2000," Discussion Papers in Environment and Development Economics 2016-15, University of St. Andrews, School of Geography and Sustainable Development.
    14. Eskeland, Gunnar S., 2013. "Leadership in Climate Policy: Is there a case for Early Unilateral Unconditional Emission Reductions?," Discussion Papers 2013/6, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    15. M. del Mar Rubio Varas, 2005. "Value and depreciation of mineral resources over the very long run: An empirical contrast of different methods," Economics Working Papers 867, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    16. Martin Stuermer, 2022. "Non-renewable resource extraction over the long term: empirical evidence from global copper production," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 35(3), pages 617-625, December.
    17. Martin Stuermer & Maxwell Fleming & Ian Lange & Sayeh Shojaeinia, 2023. "Growth and Resources in Space: Pushing the Final Frontier?," Working Papers 2023-02, Colorado School of Mines, Division of Economics and Business.
    18. Boyce, John R., 2019. "The paradox of value, directed technical change, and the relative abundance of the chemical elements," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    19. Hendrik Van den Berg, 2012. "Explaining neoclassical economists' pro-growth agenda: does the popular Solow growth model bias economic analysis?," International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 40-62.
    20. Garmendia, E. & Prellezo, R. & Murillas, A. & Escapa, M. & Gallastegui, M., 2010. "Weak and strong sustainability assessment in fisheries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 96-106, November.

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