This important study of forestry economics synthesizes and integrates the existing literature, while at the same time developing it in new directions. The authors investigate the relationship of forest economics to the fundamentals of the economics of the non-renewable and renewable resources in general. In doing so, they show how a rather general theoretical model can be converted into a useful empirical model. The book opens with a study of investment theory and moves on to discuss general principles of the economics of natural resources. These studies are then developed into a study of pure forest economics.