IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/jioedu/v4y2010i1n2.html

A Fallacy in the ANWR Drilling Debate: A Lesson on Scarcity Rents and Intertemporal Pricing under Different Market Structures

Author

Listed:
  • Coats R. Morris
  • Pecquet Gary
  • Sanders Shane D.

Abstract

It is common knowledge that oil discovered today, or that is newly allowed to be developed, has no effect on prices until reaching the market. However, economic theory does not support common knowledge on this issue. By lowering the value of holding oil for future sale, a future oil supply increase makes it more profitable for firms to produce and sell oil presently. Under three distinct market structures, we use a two-period model to show students that the resulting increase in present supply decreases the present price of oil. Production decisions in the absence of scarcity rents are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Coats R. Morris & Pecquet Gary & Sanders Shane D., 2010. "A Fallacy in the ANWR Drilling Debate: A Lesson on Scarcity Rents and Intertemporal Pricing under Different Market Structures," Journal of Industrial Organization Education, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jioedu:v:4:y:2010:i:1:n:2
    DOI: 10.2202/1935-5041.1029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-5041.1029
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1935-5041.1029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, Dwight R, 1978. "Price Controls, Binding Constraints, and Intertemporal Economic Decision Making," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(2), pages 293-301, April.
    2. Harold Hotelling, 1931. "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 137-137.
    3. Conrad, Jon M. & Kotani, Koji, 2007. "Erratum to "When to drill? Trigger prices for the arctic national wildlife refuge" [Resour. Energy Econ. 27(4) (2005) 273-286]," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 244-245, September.
    4. Robert M. Solow, 1974. "The Economics of Resources or the Resources of Economics," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 12, pages 257-276, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Partha Dasgupta & Geoffrey Heal, 1974. "The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 3-28.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coats, R. Morris & Pecquet, Gary M., 2008. "The effect of opening up ANWR to drilling on the current price of oil," MPRA Paper 9543, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Devarajan, Shantayanan & Fisher, Anthony C, 1981. "Hotelling's "Economics of Exhaustible Resources": Fifty Years Later," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 65-73, March.
    3. Daniele Schilirò, 2019. "Sustainability, Innovation, and Efficiency: A Key Relationship," Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance, in: Magdalena Ziolo & Bruno S. Sergi (ed.), Financing Sustainable Development, chapter 0, pages 83-102, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Jouvet, Pierre-André & Schumacher, Ingmar, 2012. "Learning-by-doing and the costs of a backstop for energy transition and sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 122-132.
    5. Dorothée Charlier & Florian Fizaine, 2020. "Does Becoming Richer Lead to a Reduction in Natural Resource Consumption? An Empirical Refutation of the Kuznets Material Curve," Working Papers 2020.05, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    6. Giuseppe Cornelli, 2017. "Cosa s’intende per sostenibilità economica? Riflessione sul significato di sistema economicamente sostenibile/What is meant by economic ustainability? Reflection on the definition of today’s concept of sustainability," IRCrES Working Paper 201710, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY.
    7. L. Venkatachalam, 2025. "Environmental Economics and Ecological Economics: Historical Evolution and the Current Status," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 30(1_suppl), pages 25-49, May.
    8. Edward B. Barbier & Joanne C. Burgess, 2021. "Sustainable Use of the Environment, Planetary Boundaries and Market Power," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Beatriz Gaitan S. & Richard S.J. Tol & I. Hakan Yetkiner, 2006. "The Hotelling’s Rule Revisited in a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model," Papers of the Annual IUE-SUNY Cortland Conference in Economics, in: Oguz Esen & Ayla Ogus (ed.), Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources, pages 213-238, Izmir University of Economics.
    10. Ronald H. Schmidt, 1988. "Hotelling's rule repealed? An examination of exhaustible resource pricing," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Fall, pages 41-54.
    11. Di Maria, Corrado & Valente, Simone, 2006. "The Direction of Technical Change in Capital-Resource Economies," MPRA Paper 1040, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Johannes Pfeiffer, 2017. "Fossil Resources and Climate Change – The Green Paradox and Resource Market Power Revisited in General Equilibrium," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 77, April.
    13. Johnson Kakeu, 2016. "Exhaustibility and Risk as Asset Class Dimensions: A Social Investor Approach to Capital-Resource Economies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(4), pages 677-695, December.
    14. Bazhanov, Andrei V., 2022. "Extraction path and sustainability," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Johnson Kakeu, 2023. "Concerns for Long-Run Risks and Natural Resource Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(4), pages 1051-1093, April.
    16. Nyambuu, Unurjargal & Semmler, Willi, 2020. "Climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy – Carbon targets and the carbon budget," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 367-376.
    17. Partha Dasgupta & Geoffrey Heal & Joseph E. Stiflitx, 1980. "The Taxation of Exhaustible Resources," NBER Working Papers 0436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Di Vita, Giuseppe, 2006. "Natural resources dynamics: Exhaustible and renewable resources, and the rate of technical substitution," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 172-182, September.
    19. Katayama, Seiichi & Abe, Fumio, 1998. "Is the monopolist the friend of the conservationist? Two remarks on the Hotelling-Solow paradox," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(3-4), pages 493-505, January.
    20. Santopietro, George D., 1998. "Alternative methods for estimating resource rent and depletion cost: the case of Argentina's YPF," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 39-48, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:jioedu:v:4:y:2010:i:1:n:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.