Abstract
Forecasts of rising prices in the extractive industries, relative to manufacturing, occupy a prominent place in the literature of economics. For the agricultural commodities, the combination of Malthusian population theory with the insights of Ricardo on rent seemed to ensure that any benefits from technological change would be dissipated as growing population necessitated the cultivation of worse and worse land. Food prices would thus be rising relative to the prices of the manufactured goods not subject to diminishing returns. Ricardo initiated a long controversy over the effects of technological changes on rents and the distribution of income, but the dismal implications of the growing population pressing against the fixed supply of land are part of the intellectual inheritance of the economist.
I am grateful to the Conference Participants and other readers for helpful suggestions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adelman, M.A., 1988. “Mineral Depletion, with Special Reference to Petroleum.” MIT Energy Lab Working Paper No. MIT EL -88–002 WP.
Barnett, H.J., 1979. “Scarcity and Growth Revisited.” Ch. 8 in V. Kerry Smith.
Barnett, H.J., and C. Morse, 1963. Scarcity and Growth: The Economics of Natural Resource Availability. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
Bohi, D.R. and MA. Toman, 1984. Analyzing Natural Resource Supply. Washington: Resources for the Future.
Brobst, DA., 1979. “Fundamental Concepts for the Analysis of Resource Availability.” Ch. 5 in V. Kerry Smith.
Dasgupta, P.S. and G.M. Heal, 1979. Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dasgupta, P.S. and G.M. Heal, R. Gilbert, and J. Stiglitz, 1983. “Strategic Considerations in Invention and Innovation: The Case of Natural Resources.” Econometrica, 51 (5), 1439–1448.
Davis, E.W., 1964. Pioneering with Taconite. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society.
DeGregori, T.R.,1985. A Theory of Technology: Continuity and Change in Human Development. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
Gaffney, M. (ed.), 1967. Extractive Resources and Taxation. Madison: University of Wiscons in Press.
Goeller, H.E. and A.M. Weinberg, 1978. “The Age of Substitutibility.” American Economic Review, 68 (5), 1–11.
Reprinted from Science,191, 683–689.
Gold, B., W.S. Peirce, G. Rosegger, and M. Perlman, 1984. Technological Progress and Industrial Leadership: The Growth of the U.S. Steel Industry, 1900–1970.Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
Gray, L.C., 1914. “Rent Under the Assumption of Exhaustibility.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. May. Reprinted in Gaffney.
Hotelling, H., 1931. “The Economics of Exhaustible Resources.” Journal of Political Economy, 39, 137–175.
Howe, C.W., 1979. Natural Resource Economics: Issues, Analysis, and Policy. New York: Wiley.
Kamien, M.I. and N.L. Schwartz, 1978. “Optimal Exhaustible Resource Depletion with Endogenous Technical Change.” Review of Economic Studies, XLV (139), 179–196.
Kay, JA. and J.A. Mirrlees, 1975. “The Desirability of Natural Resource Depletion.” Ch. 9 in D. W. Pearce and J. Rose, (eds.), The Economics of Natural Resource Depletion. New York: Wiley.
Martin, D.D., 1967. “Resource Control and Market Power.” Ch. 5 in Gaffney.
Meadows, D.H., D.L. Meadows, J. Randers, and W.W. Behrens III, 1972. The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe Books.
Miller, M.H. and C.W. Upton, 1985. “A Test of the Hotelling Valuation Principle.” Journal of Political Economy, 93 (1), 1–25.
Musgrove, PA., 1971. “The Distribution of Metal Resources (Tests and Implications of the Exponential Grade-Size Relation).” Proceedings of the Council of Economics. American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Annual Meeting, March 1–4, pp. 349–417.
Peirce, W.S., 1975. “The Effects of Technological Change: Exploring Successive Ripples.” Ch. 6 in Bela Gold, (ed.), Technological Change: Economics, Management and Environment. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Ricardo, D., 1960. The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation ( 1817 ). New York: Dutton, Everyman.
Simon, J.L., 1980. “Resources, Population, Environment: An Oversupply of False Bad News.” Science, 208 (27 June): 1431–1437.
Smith, V.K. (ed.), 1979. Scarcity and Growth Reconsidered. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press for RFF.
United States Bureau of Mines, 1967. “Thickness of Bituminous Coal and Lignite Seams Mined in 1965.” Information Circular 8345.
Weed, C.E., 1967. “Copper Marketing.” Proceedings of the Council of Economics, AIMMPE, Annual Meeting, Feb. 20–22, pp. 1–5.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Peirce, W.S. (1989). Rent and Technological Change in the Extractive Industries. In: Carlsson, B. (eds) Industrial Dynamics. Studies in Industrial Organization, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1075-1_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1075-1_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6973-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1075-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive