Suchergebnisse

Jack N. Barkenbus, Deep Seabed Resources: Politics and TechnologyRaymond F. Mikesell, The World Copper industry: Structure and Economic AnalysisCarmine Nappi, Commodity Market Controls: A Historical ReviewJohn E. Tilton, The Future of Nonfuel Minerals

TOO MUCH POWER IS IN THE HANDSOF LARGE CORPORATIONS, AND LARGE COMPANIES DOMINATE AND CONTROL TOO MUCH OF MARKETS AND SUPPLIES. THE PAPER IS A PLEA FOR CANADA TO PURSUE THE EXPLORATION FOR, AND DEVELOPMENTOF, NATURAL RESOURCES BY CROWN CORPORATIONS

CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING TRENDS IN NATURAL RESOURCES SCARCITY MAY DEPEND CRITICALLY ON THE CHOICE OF SCARCITY INDEX. UNFORTUNATELY, THE PREVALENCE OF VERTICAL INTEGRATION IN NATURAL RESOURCE INDUSTRIES HAS HINDERED THE USE OF SOME OTHERWISE DESIRABLE SCARCITY MEASURES. IN THIS PAPER DUALITY THEORY IS USED TO DERIVE AN ECONOMETRIC PROCEDURE FOR ESTIMATING ONE SUCH MEASURE, THE SHADOW PRICE OF THE RESOURCE IN SITU. EMPIRICAL RESULTS FOR THE CANADIAN METAL MINING INDUSTRY INDICATE THAT RESOURCE SCARCITY AS MEASURED BY THIS SHDOW PRICE HAS DECREASED SUBSTANTIALLY OVER TIME.

Bureaucrats responsible for natural resource management systematically advocate programs that are financially irrational or environmentally costly, & increase the command sector of the economy at the expense of voluntary exchange, as exemplified in timber production & range land management. The logic underlying this bureaucratic behavior is presented. Since it is bureaucratically profitable to provide programs that yield concentrated benefits to politically important, supportive clientele groups, such programs continue to be advocated even if they are socially costly. However, bureaus grow along with their programs, & budgets for managing socially costly programs are financed out of the treasury, which is a common pool resource funded by the taxpayers. Society as a whole increasingly loses productive resources to socially costly programs, & is forced to bear the cost of more & more decisions in which it has no voice. Advocated is a "predatory" bureau, whose budget is an increasing function of the number of socially costly bureaucratic programs that it can demonstrate to exist. Those who might argue that this device is "just another bureau" should understand that the predatory bureau would harness the bureaucrats' own incentive structure to counter common bureaucratic pathologies. Modified AA.

The developed and developing countries of the world may be divided roughly into four types: technology- source areas with high population-resource ratios; technology-source regions with low population-resource ratios; technology-deficient areas with high population-resource ratios; and technology-deficient areas with low population-resource ratios. The most critical problem of production is that of increasing food supply at the same or a greater rate than the increase in population. Technology must play a key role in any plans to increase food production. The technology exists for vast improvements in agricultural production in the deficient countries, and there are few obstacles to its export from the source areas. However, there are important obstacles to the flow of technical improvements in the deficient countries themselves. Resources exist for a possible severalfold increase in the world's population. However, there is doubt that improvement of food production can keep pace with population increase. Either a marked acceleration of the flow of technology or a marked reduction in population increase will be needed to avoid a world food crisis within this century. Over the longer run, limits exist for the number of people and the level of living that they can enjoy. The future adequacy of resources and technology will depend as much upon ethical choices and political decisions as on science and engineering.