Pareto Optimality in the Extraction of Fossil Fuels and the Greenhouse Effect: A Note

Hans-Werner Sinn

No 2083, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This note generalizes the Solow-Stiglitz efficiency condition for natural resources to the problem of fossil fuel extraction with a greenhouse effect. The generalized optimality condition suggests that the greenhouse effect implies overextraction in the sense of leaving future generations a wrongly composed wealth portfolio with too few natural resources relative to man-made capital. This judgment is independent of society’s ethical preferences concerning the well-being of future generations.

Keywords: global warming; resource extraction; Pareto optimality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp2083.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Pareto Optimality in the Extraction of Fossil Fuels and the Greenhouse Effect: A Note (2007)
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:ces:ceswps:_2083

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klaus Wohlrabe ().