Does an Exhaustible Resource Usually Have Many Near‐Optimal Depletion Paths?
解释了Chapman模型中边际成本定价解为何接近最优，并识别出竞争模型中的其他近优解，还讨论了现实复杂性导致多重近优解的原因及其对公共政策和经济理论的意义。
Abstract In a recent article Chapman finds that different depletion paths for a highly abstract world oil model yield objective function values close to the optimal level. In this article the near optimality of Chapman's marginal cost pricing solution is explained and many other near‐optimal solutions to his competitive model are identified. Furthermore, evidence is cited that multiple near optima emerge from numerical exhaustible resource models incorporating several important real‐world complexities and reasons for this occurrence are provided. The principal implications for public policy and economic theory are also discussed.