The value of the services provided top human societies by natural ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles has recently been the topic of discussion and research. Here I review some of the basic economic principles necessary for understanding some of the questions that arise in this area. I argue...

I develop a framework for thinking about some aspects of sustainability. The framework is one for modeling the dynamic interactions of economic and biological systems, studying the time paths that can emerge from these, and then selecting one of these as optimal. I investigate alternative...

There is a widespread recognition that we need to revise our methods of measuring national income to incorporate better the impact of economic activity on environmental assets. Our aim here is to investigate alternative concepts of national income in a dynamic economy, one a generalization of...

The world of public goods has changed in the last quarter century. Many of the changes have their origins in massively increased human impacts on the biosphere, and in particular on important life support systems such as the carbon cycle, and on resources such as biodiversity, which operate as...

Do markets lead us to make sustainable choices? If not, why not? And what would we need to do to remedy this? This paper takes a preliminary look at these questions. It identifies three categories of reasons why market choices may not be sustainable, related to valuation of the future,...