We study the economic mechanism which sustains the substitution of a marginal method for another when demand increases, in the presence of scarce resources. In those Ricardian dynamics, it is shown that the outgoing method is determined by the quantity side of the problem, the incoming method by...

The Ricardian dynamics describe the substitution of a new marginal method for an outgoing marginal method when demand increases. The process of extension or intensi…cation of cultivation allows for spasmodic changes in prices and rents but is smooth on the physical side. We criticize the notion...

The maximin criterion defines the highest utility level which can be sustained in an intergenerational equity perspective. The viability approach characterizes all the economic trajectories sustaining a given, not necessarily maximal, utility level. In this paper, we exhibit the strong links...