The exploration and investment decisions for a resource producing firm are largely irreversible, not now-or-never propositions, and have uncertain future payoffs. As such, we show that, for such decisions to proceed, the expected discounted future returns to these decisions must outweigh the...

This paper develops a model in which supply of a non-renewable resource can adjust through two margins: the rate of depletion and the rate of field opening. Faster depletion of existing fields means that less of the resource can ultimately be extracted, and optimal depletion of open fields...

This paper extends the classical exhaustible-resource/stock-pollution model with the irreversibility of pollution decay. Within this framework, we answer the question how the potential irreversibility of pollution affects the extraction path. We investigate the conditions under which the economy...

This paper extends the classical exhaustible-resource/stock-pollution model with the irreversibility of pollution decay. Within this framework, we answer the question how the potential irreversibility of pollution affects the extraction path. We investigate the conditions under which the economy...

Geological constraints are considered in the context of a Hotelling type extraction-exploration model for an exhaustible resource. It is shown that such constraints, in combination with initially small reserves and strictly convex exploration costs, can coherently explain bellshaped peaks in...