RFF announces the publication of the selected works of Orris C. Herfindahl, 1918-1972:
Resource Economics: Selected Works of Orris C. Herfindahl, edited by David B. Brooks
Orris Herfindahl was among the first modern economists to go beyond descriptive survey of natural resources and to view mineral resources as economic goods. Using traditional (neoclassic) theoretical and empirical economic analysis, be threw new light on resource supply and demand relationships.
Best known for his work in mineral supply and completion in the minerals industry, Herfindahl advanced the now widely accepted view that ore deposits are better treated as capital than as "land." In his later work, Herfiridahl addressed the larger issue of the quality of the environment. From 1957 until his death, Herfindahl was a senior research associate with Resources for the Future.
David Brooks, a colleague of Herfindahl's, has compiled a convenient text of balanced and representative samplings of Herfindahl's writings on the nature and scope of source economics, natural resource supply and conservation, the economics of the minerals industry, the supply of natural resource information, and the quality of the natura; environment. The editor provides an introduction which sets the thematic framework and a full bibliography of Herfindahl's work.
A version of this article appeared in print in the September 1974 issue of Resources magazine.
