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Exhaustible Resources

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Abstract

An exhaustible resource is a term that has come to be associated with an ore such as coal, oil or platinum which does not renew itself rapidly in its natural setting. Any resource can be exhausted and most resources are being renewed but for exhaustible resources, the speed of replenishment is very slow. Forests, fishing grounds, and arable land have and are being exhausted but are generally treated as natural resources other than exhaustible. Exhaustible and non-renewable have come to be used interchangeably. Since forest and fish stocks generally do renew themselves by natural as opposed to human actions, they have come to be called renewable resources. Land as a means of producing useful product has come to be treated separately from renewable and exhaustible resources.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman

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Hartwick, J.M. (1987). Exhaustible Resources. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_526-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_526-1

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Exhaustible Resources
    Published:
    27 April 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_526-2

  2. Original

    Exhaustible Resources
    Published:
    09 November 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_526-1