Thinking about population as a driver of agricultural development provides insights into induced technical and institutional change, whether it be Esther Boserup's declining fallow period, modern crop varieties, or the specialization pyramid that arises in labor-intensive agriculture. The...

This paper develops a regional hydrologic-ecologic-economic model of groundwater use and a nearshore ecosystem. Particularly, we model coastal groundwater management and its effects on discharge, nearshore water quality, and marine biota (e.g., indigenous marine algae). We show that...

Despite abundant rainfall and groundwater resources, the State of Hawai'i has managed to erect so many barriers to efficient use that serious conflicts have erupted over use rights to water. In what is currently the most prominent battle, environmental and agricultural interests of windward...

This paper examines the optimal extraction sequence of nonrenewable resources in the presence of multiple demands. We provide conditions under which extraction of a nonrenewable resource may be discontinuous over the course of its depletion.

The one demand Hotelling model fails to explain the observed specialization of nonrenewable resources in specific end-uses. We develop a model with multiple demands and multiple resources and grades. Principles of Ricardian absolute and comparative advantage play an important role in determining...

We model coastal groundwater management and its effects on submarine groundwater discharge, nearshore marine water quality, and marine biota. Incorporating the stock externality effects on nearshore resources increases the optimal sustainable steady-state levels of both the aquifer head and the...

While renewable resource economics is typically confined to one source and one aggregate demand, resource managers must often decide how to manage multiple sources of a resource simultaneously. In addition, studies of extraction sequencing are typically confined to non-renewable resources. We...