Forest Economics, Revised and Expanded Edition

A comprehensive, updated guide to applying economic principles for effective forest management and policy.

A firm grounding in economics is integral to sound forestry management, investment, policies, and practices. Forest Economics, Revised and Expanded Edition, a full revision of the widely used 2011 text, is an essential textbook for forestry students. It covers the basic economic concepts, principles, and constructs and shows how these are applied in private and public forestry decision-making. The goal is to lead readers to understand how to use land, labor, and capital to produce goods and services from forests in ways that will best meet the needs of people.

This comprehensive edition—which systematically covers modern forest management, timberland investment, and policy issues—contains new data, examples, and applications of economic principles throughout, along with updated references and study questions. Additional content is provided in several significant new areas:

• Forest finance and forestland investment/ownership, including financial economic models
• Simple interest rate and risk measurements
• Market distortion
• Consumer theory
• Priced non-timber values and payment for ecosystem services
• Land rent theory
• The economics of forest management planning and forest health/wildfire economics
• An international comparison of forest taxes and fees
• The measurement of competitiveness in international trade
• A new theory of foreign direct investment

The advanced empirical presentation and ongoing close attention to new developments in the field reflect the authors’ decades of teaching experience and dedication to smart forest management in the United States and Canada. This is an integral book for undergraduate and graduate students of forest economics and resource management and policy, as well as for practitioners and investors in timberland and the forest industry.

Daowei Zhang is George W. Peake Professor of forest economics and policy and associate dean for research in the College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment at Auburn University.

 Peter H. Pearse is professor emerit in the Department of Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia, a registered professional forester (retired), and a member of the Order of Canada.