| Sumario: | The article states that, under certain standard simplifying assumptions, the consumption stream of a depletable, nonreclaimable, nonreproducible resource that is produced by competitive market behavior does, in fact coincide with the socially efficient consumption stream in the U.S. In response to these fears the government is enacting an increasing number of policy measures that would slow down the rate of consumption of such natural resources. One example of such a measure is the provision in the National Environmental Policy Act that requires all Federal agencies to identify for all proposed projects any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved. The clear implication is that the market prices of such commodities do not reflect long-run social cost and that the government must price these commodities de novo in each instance in order to capture their value to the future. Consumer demand is assumed to be separable by time period. It is more difficult, but nevertheless possible, to see that the same equilibrium holds if either one of the assumptions about perfect information or zero storage cost is not satisfied. If suppliers have perfect foresight of demand, but consumers must use what they purchase in the period of purchase then the individual supply functions remain the same, while the demand functions become the consumption demand functions
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