Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/57164 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper Series in Economics No. 220
Publisher: 
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Lüneburg
Abstract: 
We study how human preferences affect the resilience of economies that depend on more than one type of natural resources. In particular, we analyze whether the degree of substitutability of natural resources in consumer needs may give rise to multiple steady states and path dependence even when resources are managed optimally. This is a major shift in the interpretation and analysis of resilience, from viewing (limited) resilience as an objective property of the economy-environment system to acknowledging its partially subjective, preference-based character. We find that society tends to be less willing to buffer exogenous shocks if resource goods are complements in consumption than if they are substitutes. Hence, the stronger the complementarity between the various types of resource goods, the less resilient the economy is.
Subjects: 
resilience
substitutes and complements
discounting
multiple steady states
natural resources
path dependence
regime shifts
tipping points
JEL: 
C62
O13
Q01
Q20
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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