This article provides a theoretical framework, based on optimal control theory, to analyze farm households' land-use intensification decisions in forest-based shifting cultivation (slash-and-burn) agroecosystems. The main results from the analysis generally coincide with the "Population Pressure...

This paper provides a theoretical framework to analyse land quality and labour allocation decisions by poor rural households in the context of increased population densities in slash-and-burn (shifting cultivation) agro-ecosystems. A bio-economic optimal control model is presented and its...

The role of natural resources in fostering economic development is examined for key historical epochs, from the agricultural revolution in 8,000 BC to the present. Natural resource exploitation has been important to development for most of global history. Depending on which epoch is examined,...

The paper combines an economic-geography model of agglomeration and periphery with a model of species diversity and looks at optimal policies of biodiversity conservation. The subject of the paper is "natural" biodiversity, which is inevitably impaired by anthropogenic impact. Thus, the economic...

We model biological invasions as an unintended by-product of capital accumulation. We distinguish three spillover effects: (1) a negative production externality, (2) a negative or positive consumption externality and (3) an increase in the risk of future welfare loss. We also consider the...