Resource Economics engages students and practitioners in natural resource and environmental issues from both local and global standpoints. The 4th edition of this approachable but rigorous text provides a new focus on risk and uncertainty as well as new applications that address the effect of new energy technologies on scarcity and climate change mitigation and adaptation, while preserving and systematically updating the approach and key features that drew many thousands of readers to the first three editions.More comprehensive than its competitors, this new edition frames issues and policies from resource scarcity and basic ecology to welfare criteria, property rights, and environmental ethics. Necessary economic, policy, and management concepts and tools are provided, along with applications to a variety of real-world problems. Also included are substantial treatments of new energy technologies, including fracking for oil and natural gas, solar and wind energy, and chapter length analyses of air quality, land markets and use, water resources, climate change, and sustainability.Primarily a textbook, this teaching tool is perfect for undergraduate and graduate students alike who are studying natural resource and environmental economics, as well as sustainability. Additionally, natural resource, environmental policy, and management decision-makers in the private and public sectors will find the content of this book useful for guiding real-world management and policy decisions. Academic, government, and NGO researchers will also find this to be a valuable resource.

Natural resource and environmental policy and natural resource supply and scarcity Microeconomic theory foundations for efficiency, well-being, and the problem of risk Economic theory and institutions for public policy Measuring and comparing benefits and costs of natural resource and environmental policy and projects Optimal management of non-renewable and renewable resources The economics of air, land, and water resource use and policy Environmental ethics, sustainability, climate change, and the future.