Working Paper Series,
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business

Abstract: We investigate to what extent recycling can remedy resource scarcity, and whether market intervention is desired. For doing so, we develop a dynamic model of the global lithium market. An efficient market for resource waste allows consumers to internalize the waste value when they buy the resource. In the analytical part of our paper, we show that the efficient market can alternatively be realized through a proper set of worldwide subsidies to either buyers or sellers of both virgin and recycled lithium. In our numerical simulations, we find that optimal subsidies may become quite substantial in the second half of this century. The size of these subsidies depends, however, on a number of uncertain assumptions such as technological progress in both extraction and recycling, quality-grade of recovered lithium, and demand elasticity.

Keywords: Natural Resource Economics; Exhaustible resources; Minerals; Recycling

JEL-codes: L72; Q30; Q40; Q53

28 pages, First version: April 13, 2018. Revised: April 16, 2018.

Full text files

31502  Full text

Download statistics

• Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business
• Home page for this series

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Frode Alfnes ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

RePEc:hhs:nlsseb:2018_003This page generated on 2024-09-13 22:16:28.