Resource conservation and pricing

The belief that forests, minerals, fisheries, and other exhaustible assets are being depleted at excessive rates in a free enterprise society has led to recurrent demands for the regulation of resource exploitation. Many have believed that further regulations are necessary — for example, the conservation movement accepted as basic tenents that most resources were too cheap, were wastefully exploited, and would become exhausted soon. This paper surveys several interrelated issues in resource depletion from an economist's perspective, in particular, whether the articles of faith of the conservation movement are borne out by economic theory and available empirical evidence. Are resources too cheap? Are they wastefully exploited? Will resources become exhausted prematurely? Are we neglecting the needs of future generations?