of increasing safety rather than production. We study the U.S. metals mining sector, leveraging exogenous demand shocks …

damage. As expected, when the environmental damage from mining is known, the socially optimal timing will depend on the … mining until better information arrives. We show conditions under which it is optimal to postpone the mining decision … marginal mine owner is completely indifferent between mining immediately and at any point in the future. Thus, for our problem …

mining deposits is associated with bigger firms and fewer start-ups in the middle of the 20th century. We use mines as an … cold and warm regions alike and in industries that are not directly related to mining, such as trade, finance and services …