Introduction

Conventional belief holds that the ever globalizing market economy is running out of natural resources, and hence is doomed to fail in the foreseeable future (see Meadows et al, 1972, 1992, for a system–dynamic foundation of the conventional belief). Long–run resource statistics however show exactly the opposite trend: natural resource scarcity as measured by real unit extraction costs of almost all fossil and mineral resources is decreasing (see the classic study by Barnett and Morse, 1963). Although more recent empirical studies of real resource prices (see Slade, 1982; Hamilton, 2008; Ghoshray and Johnson, 2010) have also detected rising prices for some natural resources, the empirical evidence on increasing resource scarcity remains mixed (Endres and Querner, 2000, 18). The question thus arises whether natural resource scarcity is an imaginary or a real problem in economics. We will address this major question in the present book by dividing it into subquestions and respective brief answers to provide an intellectual roadmap to the reader of this book.