Uranium and nuclear power: The role of exploration information in framing public policy

Charles Mason

Resource and Energy Economics, 2014, vol. 36, issue 1, 49-63

Abstract: As the importance of addressing climate change increases the future global role for nuclear power, the demand for uranium will increase. Expanded uranium reserves will be needed to meet this increased demand, highlighting the importance of future exploratory efforts. To shed light on the social desirability of future exploration levels I analyze a past expansionary period in the U.S. uranium industry. I find exploration levels were smaller than socially efficient during this period, resulting from a deviation between the private and social values of information. Looking forward, public policies can encourage optimal exploration levels by addressing this deviation.

Keywords: Exploration; Learning; Nuclear power; Uranium; Value of information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 L72 Q31 Q42 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928765513000845
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Uranium and Nuclear Power:The Role of Exploration Information in Framing Public Policy (2013)
Working Paper: Uranium and Nuclear Power: The Role of Exploration Information in Framing Public Policy (2013)
Working Paper: Uranium and Nuclear Power: The role of exploration information in framing public policy (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:resene:v:36:y:2014:i:1:p:49-63

DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.11.009

Access Statistics for this article

Resource and Energy Economics is currently edited by J. F. Shogren and S. Smulders

More articles in Resource and Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().