New Frontiers of Forest Economics: Forest economics beyond the perfectly competitive commodity markets

Published Date
November 2016, Vol.72:1–6, doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2016.06.009
New Frontiers of Forest Economics: Forest Economics beyond the Perfectly Competitive Commodity Market.

Author 

Shashi Kant ^a,,

Peter Deegen ^b,

Martin Hostettler ^c,

Sen Wang ^d,

Jintao Xu ^e,

Gregory Valatin ^f,

aFaculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Canada

bProfessorship of Forest Policy and Forest Resource Economics, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

cCycad AG, CH 3011 Bern, Switzerland

dCanadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Atlantic Forestry Centre Fredericton, E3B 5P7, New Brunswick

eNational School of Development, Peking University, Beijing, China

fForest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom

Received 3 March 2015. Revised 5 February 2016. Accepted 5 April 2016. Available online 2 July 2016.

Highlights

• The need of New Frontiers of Forest Economics (NEFFE) is discussed.
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  Science includes analysis as well as synthesis.
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  Economic models should interweave other-regarding and self-interest preferences.
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  Rigorous analysis and synthesis of externalities should be the focus.
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  Markets and political institutions should be treated as entangled institutions.

Abstract 

The paper provides an overview of the papers included in this special issue, and presents thoughts about New Frontiers of Forest Economics. The paper argues that science does not mean analysis alone; it should be complemented by synthesis and forest economics is a promising field to rediscover synthesis as a methodology of science. The paper sets the goal of boundless profession of forest economics and suggests three key areas of research: (i) economic models that interweave other-regarding and non-cooperative self-interest preferences; (ii) rigorous analysis and synthesis of externalities and development of new economic approaches to address the diversity of interrelated property rights of complex ecosystems; and (iii) treating markets and political institutions as entangled institutions.

Keywords

Analysis

Behavioral economics

Constitutional economics

Forest economics

Institutional economics

Political institutions

Property rights

And synthesis

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  This article is part of a special section entitled “New Frontiers of Forest Economics: Forest Economics beyond the Perfectly Competitive Commodity Markets”, published in the journal Forest Policy and Economics 72, 2016.

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  Corresponding author.

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X05001002