The foundations of the economics of the outer space: A premier overview

Anelí Bongers, Benedetto Molinari (), Sébastien Rouillon and Jose Torres ()
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Benedetto Molinari: Department of Economics, University of Malaga and CREA

No 01-2024, Space Economics Working Papers from Institute for Space Economics

Abstract: Although it is probably too early to define a new field of economics named "Economics of Outer Space", the rising importance of outer space for scientific, economic, and social development is beyond discussion. Nowadays, commercial satellites offer various vital services to Earth's consumers at the cost of congesting and polluting space with orbital debris. However, this is just the beginning of history, and several new commercial exploitations of outer space will appear in the future, with the consolidation of an almost autonomous industry in space, further congesting and producing additional market failures. This paper reviews seminal and initial works in this new field on various topics and discusses the connection with existing well-established fields in economics. Human activities in outer space involve several economic and legal issues related to regulation and property rights, congestion, pollution, militarization and weaponization, and exploitation of natural resources. These issues should be addressed as soon as possible to mitigate conflict among spacefaring agents and loss of welfare for humankind. Finally, we suggest future research directions in this promising and highly unexplored area.

Keywords: Outer space; Satellites; Earth's orbit; Orbital debris; Anti-satellite weapon systems; Space industry; Satellite data. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 E22 H23 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2024-08, Revised 2024-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
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