Natural Resource Scarcity and Economic Growth Revisited: Economic and Biophysical Perspectives
Author(s)
Cleveland, Cutler J.
Abstract
Many people believe that human ingenuity and technological change will mitigate scarcity problems, but biophysical analysts generally argue that basic physical and ecological laws must constrain (not determine) economic choices. A biophysical model of natural resource scarcity has been developed and is applied here to an empirical analysis of scarcity trends in the US mining, forestry, fishing and agriculture sectors. The theoretical model and empirical results are compared to their counterparts in neoclassical economics.
