Elsevier

Resources Policy

Volume 4, Issue 2, June 1978, Pages 135-145
Resources Policy

Economic rent : Incidence in selected metals and minerals

https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-4207(78)90018-1Get rights and content

Abstract

The magnitude of the ‘economic rent’ and its distribution among producing countries, mineral exploitation companies and consumers has become a dominant issue in national and international policy formulation, but the difficulties in measuring the rent add to the problems of determining its equitable distribution. This paper examines the nature of the rent and estimates its incidence in bauxite, copper, iron ore, phosphate rock, tin and petroleum. Rents were found to be low for bauxite and iron ore. Bauxite, phosphates and petroleum producers have increased their share of the rent, though this trend now seems to be reversing for bauxite and phosphates. Only in tin, and to a lesser extent petroleum, have the exporting countries captured significant shares in total rent. Otherwise, the rent is largely concentrated at the processing stage, which suggests that processing plant would have to shift to the producing countries if they are to claim a larger share.

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Cited by (4)

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The authors are grateful to Messrs Choe, Hashimoto, Pollak, Yang and Mrs Chhabra for their valuable inputs and to Miss Beacham for her invaluable administritive assistance.

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