The Conservationist's Dilemma
传统认为低利率促进自然资源保护，但本文通过模型发现，当资本设备用于资源开采时，低利率可能反而阻碍保护，初始开采率与利率呈U形关系。
It is typically thought that conservation of natural resources is encouraged by low interest rates. However, when capital goods are used to extract the resource, low interest rates may discourage rather than encourage conservation. Using a model of a capacity-constrained extractive industry in competitive equilibrium, I find the relationship between the initial rate of exploitation and the interest rate. If capital is so important that for sufficiently high interest rates the industry is nonviable, the graph of initial quantity versus the interest rate is U-shaped; the traditional result holds at small interest rates but not at large ones. Copyright 1993 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.