RESEARCH TRENDS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL-RESOURCE ECONOMICS

The research questions and topics most likely to emerge in the near te rm future are assessed. A common theme is that policy issues will be a n important driving force, as has generally been true in the past. Mor e specifically, future theoretical advances are expected to occur in t he treatment of uncertainty, the incorporation of stock service flows into natural resource analysis, and the incorporation of institutional considerations into models of resource exploitation. Research on valu ation is expected to remain vigorous, primarily in the testing of basi c assumptions and reconciliation of existing inconsistencies. Opportun ities in renewable resource economics center on the incorporation of r icher behavioral and technological detail in the general frameworks th at already exist. A better understanding of what drives technology, an d how environmental agreements can be negotiated and enforced among so vereign nations, are two topics likely to shape future research on glo bal externalities. Finally questions related to spatial aspects of nat ural resource use, and matters of land use more generally, seem likely to emerge as important topics on the profession's future research age nda.