Abstract
A debate that has raged for centuries is unlikely to be resolved by me in one lecture. However, I shall do my best to set forth the issues and indicate what ought to be the crucial factors that a jury should consider in rendering its verdict on the matter. The issue is one between forestry experts and the general public on the one side and professional economists and profit-conscious businessmen on the other. At first blush this would seem to suggest that economists are on the side of the interests and are not themselves members of the human race. But, as I hope to show, sound economic analysis is needed to do justice to the cases put forward by either of the adversary parties.
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
Alchian, A. A., 1952, Economic Replacement Policy. The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif.
Arrow, K. J. and Lind, R. C., 1970, “Uncertainty and the evaluation of public investments,” American Economic Review, 60, 354–378.
Bellman, R., 1957, Dynamic Programming. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Boulding, K. E., 1935, “The theory of a single investment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 49, 475–494.
——, 1941, 1948, 1955, 1966. Economic Analysis. Harper & Bros., New York.
Brock, W. and Mirman, L., 1972. “The stochastic modified golden rule in a one sector model of economic growth with uncertain technology,” Journal of Economic Theory (June).
Crutchfield, J. A. and Zellner, A., 1962, “Economic aspects of the Pacific halibut fishery,” Fishery Industrial Research I., US Dept. of the Interior, Washington, DC.
Diamond, P. A. and Mirrlees, J., 1971, “Optimal taxation and public production I–II,” American Economic Review, 61, 8–27, 261–278.
Faustmann, M., 1849, “On the Determination of the Value Which Forest Land and Immature Stands Possess for Forestry,” English edition edited by M. Gane, Oxford Institute Paper 42, 1968, entitled “Martin Faustmann and the Evolution of Discounted Cash Flow,” which also contains the prior 1849 paper by E. F. von Gehren.
Fernow, B. E., 1902, Economics of Forestry, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.
——, 1913, A Brief History of Forestry, 3rd Edition, University Press Toronto, Toronto.
Fisher, I., 1906, The Nature of Capital and Income, Macmillan, New York.
——, 1907, The Rate of Interest, Macmillan, New York.
——, 1930, The Theory of Interest, Macmillan, New York, particularly pp. 161–165.
Gaffney, M., 1957, “Concepts of financial maturity of timber and other assets,” Agricultural Economics Information Series 62, North Carolina State College, Raleigh, NC, September.
Gordon, H. S., 1954, “The economic theory of a common-property resource: The fishery,” Journal of Political Economy, 62, 124–142.
Goundrey, G. K., 1960, “Forest management and the theory of capital,” Canadian Journal of Economics, 26, 439–451.
Hirshleifer, J., 1958, “On the theory of optimal investment decision,” Journal of Political Economy, 66, 198–209.
——, 1966, “Investment decision under uncertainty: Applications of the state-preference approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 80.
——, 1970, Investment, Interest and Capital, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs.
Hotelling, H., 1925, “A general mathematical theory of depreciation,” Journal of the American Statistical Association,” 20, 340–353.
Lutz, F. and Lutz, V., 1951, The Theory of Investment of the Firm, (particularly Chs. 2 and 8) Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Marglin, S. A., 1963, “The social rate of discount and the optimal rate of investment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 77, 95–111.
Merton, R. C., 1975, “An asymptotic theory of growth under uncertainty,” Review of Economic Studies, 42, 375–394.
Mirrlees, J. A., “Optimum accumulation under uncertainty,” Unpublished MS, December 1965.
Nordhaus, W. D., 1974, “The falling share of profits,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Okun, A. M. and Perry, G. L., eds., pp. 167–217. The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.
Ohlin, B., 1921, “Till fragen om skogarnas omloppstid,” Ekonomisk Tidskrift, “Festschrift to Knut Wicksell.”
Phelps, E. S., and Riley, J. G., “Rawlsian growth: Dynamic programming of capital and wealth for intergenerational maxi-min justice,” Columbia University and UCLA. (Paper for private circulation, early 1974.)
Preinrich, G. A. D., 1938, “Annual survey of economic theory: The theory of depreciation,” Econometrica, 6, 219–241.
Ramsey, F. P., 1928, “A mathematical theory of saving,” Economic Journal, 38, 543–559.
Samuelson, P. A., 1937, “Some aspects of the pure theory of capital,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 51, 469–496. Also reproduced in Stiglitz, J. E., ed., Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, 1, pp. 161–188, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1966.
——, 1964, “Tax deductibility of economic depreciation to insure invariant valuations,” Journal of Political Economy (December), 604–606. Also pp. 571–573 in Merton, R. C., ed., Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, 3, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1972.
——, 1971, “Stochastic speculative price,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 68, 335–337. Also pp. 894–896 in Merton, R. C., ed., Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, 3, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1972.
——, 1973 (a), “Reply on Marxian matters,” Journal of Economic Theory, 11, 64–67.
——, 1973 (b), “Optimality of Profit-Including Prices Under Ideal Planning,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., USA, 70, 2109–2111.
Scott, A., 1955 (a), “The fishery: The objectives of sole ownership,” Journal of Political Economy, 63, 116–124.
——, 1955 (b), Natural Resources: The Economics of Conservation, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Shepard, W., 1925, “The bogey of compound interest,” Journal of Forestry, 23.
Smith, V. L., 1968, “Economics of production from natural resources,” American Economic Review, 58, 409–431.
Thunen, J. H. von, 1826, Isolated State, English edition edited by Peter Hall, 1966. Pergamon Press, London.
Waggener, T. R., 1969, “Some economic implications of sustained yield as a forest regulation model,” Contemporary Forestry Paper 6, University of Washington.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1971 Oxford University Press
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Samuelson, P.A. (1971). Economics of Forestry in an Evolving Society. In: Gopalakrishnan, C. (eds) Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523210_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523210_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-41750-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-52321-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)