Natural Resource and Energy Economics

What is the total fertility rate, which is the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, that is considered necessary to keep a population constant?

What was the central argument of Thomas Malthus in his 1798 essay regarding population and living standards?

According to The Economist magazine's commodity price index, which adjusts for inflation and is scaled so that prices from 1845–1850 have a value of 100, what has been the long-run trend for real commodity prices?

What is a British thermal unit (BTU)?

What is the key insight provided by the concept that even if the world runs out of oil, it will not run out of energy?

In the context of natural resource economics, what is user cost?

How do weak or uncertain property rights affect the extraction rate of natural resources like diamonds or wildlife?

What is a fishery collapse?

What is the primary advantage of using individual transferable quotas (ITQs) for fishery management compared to a simple total allowable catch (TAC) limit?

Why do electric utility companies often use a mix of energy sources, including some with very high operating costs like natural gas generators, instead of relying solely on low-operating-cost sources like large coal-fired plants?

What is the primary reason that forestry companies with secure property rights will choose to harvest trees at an age between 50 and 100 years old, rather than as soon as they are large enough to sell?

If a poor country discovers an oil field and can make a profit of dollar 50 per barrel by pumping it today, but believes it can make a profit of dollar 60 per barrel in 5 years, what economic tool must it use to make the optimal decision?

What has been the general trend of per capita consumption of water, energy, and solid objects in the United States over the last few decades?

In the context of managing a nonrenewable resource like coal, if a mining firm expects future profits to be higher than they are today, what will be the effect on current user cost and the current level of extraction?

What has happened to the energy efficiency of the U.S. economy, measured as inflation-adjusted GDP produced per million BTUs of energy, between 1950 and 2006?

According to data on alternative fuel viability, at what approximate price per barrel for oil does biodiesel become an economically viable alternative?

What policy tool for managing fisheries involves biologists determining a sustainable annual catch limit, after which fishing is halted for the year?

In the example of the coal mining company Black Rock, if its managers take user cost into account, how does their production level (Q1) compare to the level they would produce if they ignored user cost (Q0)?

What was the key difference in property rights that led to elephant preservation in countries like Botswana and Zimbabwe, while populations declined in other African nations?

What is the key reason for the rapid deforestation proceeding in countries where property rights over forests are poorly enforced or nonexistent?

Why do Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) lead to lower-cost, more-efficient fishing?

What is the primary conclusion that can be drawn from the long-term decline in The Economist's real commodity price index?

What is the primary reason provided for the precipitous fall of birthrates worldwide, which has led demographers to expect the world's population to peak and then decline in this century?

Per capita trash generation in the United States, a proxy for the consumption of solid objects, has leveled off at what amount since 1990?

What are the two components of the total cost (TC) that a profit-maximizing resource extraction firm considers when deciding its optimal level of current extraction?

Why is the optimal management of a fishery more difficult than the optimal management of a commercial forest?

What percentage of U.S. electricity was generated by coal-fired plants in 2006?

Which of the following is NOT a reason that forestry companies with secure property rights practice sustainable harvesting?

What is the primary cause of the 'arms race' among fishers that leads to overinvestment in bigger, faster boats, even under a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) system?

If a forestry company invests dollar 1000 per acre to plant seedlings that it expects will be worth dollar 125,000 in 100 years, and the present value of that future worth is only dollar 950.56, should the company make the investment?

Based on the data presented for the United States, what happened to total water use between its peak in 1980 and the year 2000?

The factory described in the 'Consider This' box that turns turkey entrails into fuel oil produces its oil at a cost of dollar 80 per barrel. When it opened in 2005, the market price of oil was less than dollar 50 per barrel. How was the factory able to break even?

A key point regarding world population is that modernization brings much lower death rates, which causes a temporary population explosion. Why does this explosion happen?

In the model of a nonrenewable resource extraction firm, which of the following best describes the extraction costs (EC) curve?

How do tradable fishing quotas (ITQs) contribute to overall economic efficiency, besides eliminating the 'arms race' in boats?

What are the two factors that, when combined, suggest that total demand for resources is likely to peak in the near future before falling over time?

Which of the following U.S. fisheries was listed as having the highest market value of catch in 2006?

What is the primary trade-off that resource extraction firms face when deciding on their rate of extraction?

Why is it often a rational, cost-minimizing strategy for electric companies to use high-operating-cost natural gas generators?

According to the text, what percentage of world fisheries were estimated to be underexploited in 2003?

Which renewable resource management system did the text use as an example of a failure that actually increased fishing costs by creating an 'arms race' in buying massive boats for a short season?

If a profit-maximizing firm ignores user cost when extracting a nonrenewable resource, what will be its production rule?

At a market interest rate of 5 percent per year, the present value of dollar 60 to be received in 5 years is dollar 47.01. What does this mean?

What is the primary reason that total world population is still increasing despite rapidly falling birthrates in most countries?

According to the data on oil price alternatives, which of the following becomes economically viable at the lowest oil price?

In the context of the tradable quota system for fisheries, if Sven can only make a profit of dollar 1000 from his 1000-ton quota due to his high fishing costs, and Tammy can make a much larger profit due to her low costs, what is likely to happen?

Why do economists argue that at sufficiently high electricity prices, even coal burning can be considered 'clean'?

How do demographers use the concept of replacement rate?

What is the primary reason that a policy of limiting the number of fishing boats allowed in a specific area failed to reduce catch sizes?

What has been the long-term historical relationship between living standards and birthrates?