Productivity in natural resource industries : improvement through innovation
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Productivity in natural resource industries : improvement through innovation
Resources for the Future, c1999
- : hc. : alk. paper
Available at 3 libraries
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  Tochigi
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  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
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  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Several senior natural resource analysts study the role played by innovation, particularly technological innovation, in the pursuit of heightened productivity. Increasing the output of a given input improves a firm's bottom line, makes it more competitive internationally, and reduces the potential for resource depletion and shortages. Thus, high productivity is a necessary ingredient of economic prosperity. This book illustrates the importance of technological innovation in achieving an acceptable level of output and efficiency.
In this important new offering, a team of resource scholars describes and chronicles the development of recent innovations in selected natural resource industries. The authors also reveal the causes, sources, and net effect of such innovation on productivity. In all of these sectors productivity has increased considerably since the early 1980s, although the level of improvement varies across industries. To what degree did technological innovation contribute to that increase? Individual detailed case studies detail important innovations in America's coal, petroleum, copper, and forest industries. The primary focus is on extraction and production technologies, although the existence and importance of innovation in other areas such as management technique also enter the picture. For example, the combination of new technology with restructuring seems to have breathed new life into a floundering U.S. copper industry. The authors describe the origin and diffusion of important innovation, and the concluding chapter quantifies the net effect of such innovation on productivity.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Michael A. Toman
1. Introduction: Technological Innovation in Natural Resource Industries
R. David Simpson
2. Innovation and Productivity in U.S. Coal Mining
Joel Darmstadter
3. Technological Improvement in Petroleum Exploration and Development
Douglas R. Bohi
4. Innovation, Productivity Growth, and the Survival of the U.S. Copper Industry
John E. Tilton and Hans H. Landsberg
5. Land Use Change and Innovation in U.S. Forestry
Roger A. Sedjo
6. Productivity Trends in the Natural Resource Industries: A Cross-Cutting Analysis
Ian W.H. Parry
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"