Hotelling's theory predicts that natural resource rents should increase over time. However, technical progress in resource extraction, environmental constraints,or great natural abundance could result in stagnant or declining product prices. Thus, there is no theoretical reason to believe that...

This paper tests the hypothesis that the net of extraction cost price of a natural resource does not change with volume. The hypothesis is shown to he a consequence of Hotelling's theory. The tests are performed on equations estimated by a nonparametric regression (ACE), and we show that the...