There are different views about the availability of non-renewable resources in the long run. Hotelling’s (1931) seminal model of exhaustible resources greatly influenced subsequent studies. Hotelling’s and related fixed-stock models imply decreasing availability and increasing real prices of non-renewable resources in the long run. However, most of the empirical evidence does not support the prediction of higher real price trends. Hotelling’s model has been criticised for ignoring certain factors relevant to the discovery and innovation-driven creation of additional non-renewable reserves. Contrary to Hotelling’s fixed-stock assumption, this may expand the total stock of non-renewable resources available for profitable extraction. The main research objective of this study is to address this problem by identifying a broader range of factors to be used when constructing models of the availability of non-renewable resources. This was done by means of an extensive literature survey of both historic and more contemporary thought in this regard. This study shows the evolution of thinking and reasons behind the diversity of views on the availability of non-renewable resources. Thirty core facts were identified and a broad research framework formulated, including policies and methods to mitigate resource depletion and ensure availability both at national and global levels. A key finding is that improvements in various productivity-enhancing technologies have, thus far, delayed the onset of decreased availability and higher real price trends implied by Hotelling’s and other fixed-stock models. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

Zhou Yu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-57). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Dynamics of A One-sector Growth Model with Consumption and Capital Externalities --- p.4 / Chapter III. --- Consumption Externalities and Individual Consumption --- p.26 / Chapter IV. --- Capital Externalities and Long-run Productions --- p.36 / Chapter V. --- Conclusion --- p.50 / Chapter VI. --- References --- p.52 / Chapter VII. --- Appendix --- p.58

Wong, Tsz Ning. / "September 2010." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-90). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Abstract in Chinese --- p.ii / Acknowledgments --- p.iii / Contents --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Two-level CES Production Technology --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Two-level Normalized CES Producation Function --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Two Measures of AES --- p.11 / Chapter 3 --- The Benchmark Models --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Solow (1956) Model --- p.13 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Model of Mankiw et al. (1992) --- p.14 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Ramsey (1928) Model --- p.16 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Model of Stokey (1996) --- p.18 / Chapter 4 --- Nesting with Capital´ؤSkill Complementarity --- p.24 / Chapter 4.1 --- Basic Properties of the Production Function --- p.24 / Chapter 4.2 --- Empirical Evidence on Substitution Parameters --- p.30 / Chapter 4.3 --- Comparative Statics --- p.31 / Chapter 4.4 --- AES --- p.35 / Chapter 5 --- Nesting without Capital-Skill Complementarity --- p.46 / Chapter 5.1 --- Basic Properties of the Production Function --- p.46 / Chapter 5.2 --- Empirical Evidence on Substitution Parameters --- p.51 / Chapter 5.3 --- Comparative Statics --- p.52 / Chapter 5.4 --- AES --- p.54 / Chapter 5.5 --- Numerical Examples --- p.58 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.61 / Appendix --- p.62 / Chapter A.1 --- Summary of Previous Results --- p.62 / Chapter A.2 --- Proofs for Chapter 4 --- p.63 / Chapter A.3 --- Proofs for Chapter 5 --- p.75 / Chapter A.4 --- "AES in Non-optimizing Model of Growth (Mankiw et al.,1992)" --- p.84 / References --- p.87 / Figures --- p.91

The thesis contains two chapters which address questions important both for the economic theory and applications. In Chapter I we show that inequalities are an important tool in the theory of production functions. Various notions of internal economies of scale can be equivalently expressed in terms of upper or lower bounds on production functions. In the problem of aggregation of efficiently allocated goods, if one is concerned with two-sided bounds as opposed to exact expressions, the aggregate production function can be derived from some general assumptions about production units subject to aggregation. The approach used does not require smoothness or convexity properties. In Chapter II we introduce a new forecasting techniques essential parts of which include using average high-order polynomial estimators for in-sample fit and low-order polynomial extension for out-of-sample fit. We provide some statements following the Gauss-Markov theorem format. The empirical part shows that algebraic polynomials treated in a proper way can perform very well in one-step-ahead prediction, especially in prediction of the direction of exchange rate movements. / Graduation date: 1995

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 1980. / Submitted to the Dept. of Economics. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Barbara, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-100).

No description available.

This dissertation presents a theoretical framework to analyze and evaluate aggregation biases. These biases measure the information lost when macro relations evaluated in terms of aggregates do not capture all of the distributional properties of micro relations. The framework is developed in the context of producer theory, but it may be used to determine the biasedness of any representative agent model and to study general relationships between exact-aggregation macro parameters and their microfoundations. The model is based on a stochastic interpretation of the production characteristics which encompasses that of previous stochastic aggregation models (Houthakker, 1955; Hildenbrand, 1981; Stoker, 1984; Lewbel, 1986a). It admits the construction of "true" aggregate relations which can be compared to pre-specifed macro relations. Many of Theil's (1954, 1971) statistical results concerning the relations between micro and macro parameters then can be formalized at the population level and generalized to non-linear functions. A moments decomposition of the "true" aggregate relation makes it possible to identify the sources and causes of potential aggregation biases. Thus, the functional-form restrictions of exact-aggregation models (Gorman, 1968a; Blackorby and Schworm, 1984, 1988) are found to be neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for consistent aggregation, if the aggregates are taken to be the usual totals or averages. Traditionally, similarity among firms, either as a maintained hypothesis or as the long-run outcome of perfect competition, has proved to ensure exact aggregation. Here, economic diversification may also provide an alternative set of circumstances under which the aggregation biases may be minimized. In the case of an average-representative firm, the output aggregation bias is explicitly derived. Empirical analyses confirm that the magnitude of the bias increases as higher moment terms in the production characteristics increase in importance. Conditions under which exact-aggregation macro parameters possess stable microdefinitions are obtained; they explain Fisher's (1971) simulation results. Empirical results show that such macro parameters are relatively stable (within the estimated confidence intervals) when based on periods of relative economic stability. Finally, theoretical implications for macroeconometric modeling and policy evaluation are explored. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate