Workshops and training activities

Short Description
The Conference covered the following fields:
- Economics of dynamic ecological systems
- Non-market resource allocation mechanisms
- Construction of indicators of economic performance.
These seemingly unrelated fields are important for understanding the role of natural resources in the economic development of poor countries. Services generated by eco-systems are important for human well-being, but eco-systems most often lack property rights. These services are not traded on markets and their uses are instead determined by other resource allocation mechanisms. In order to design better management strategies, we need to know both the dynamic of the eco-systems and the resource allocation mechanisms. The first is studied by the use of mathematics of complex systems and the second by the use of game theory.
Because of the lack of property rights, eco-system services are not visible in traditional accounts. Thus the GNP, for example, will not include them. Today, more economists believe that the right way to include natural capital is by extending the concept of wealth. This, however, creates difficult problems with accounting prices and their estimation. This was the third field of the Conference.
Programme and Papers