1 1. Reflections on the historical development of natural resource and environmental economics John C. Bergstrom INTRODUCTION There are many perspectives on the historical development of natural resource and environmental economics, and what constitutes the main ingredients of the body of knowledge and associated teaching in the field. This introductory chapter, and outline of this book as a whole, represents the author’s personal perspectives on these topics. 1 Also, since this is a book about teaching natural resource and environmental economics, in this chapter I also attempt to high- light the academic heritage of natural resource and environmental economics including key contributors and programs. Teachers of environmental and resource economics can enhance their lectures with some history of thought story telling. This chapter, which is heavily influenced by the author’s own teaching and research experience provides a brief introduction. Thus, I do not claim that this chapter covers everything and everybody that may be important components of an overview and history of natural resource and environmental economics. The interested reader should also see Spash (1999), Pearce (2002), Heal (2007), Kling et al. (2010), Lichtenberg et al. (2010), Sandmo (2015), Brown et al. (2016), and Groom and Talevi (2020) for fuller treatments from different perspectives. Historically, natural resource economics and environmental economics developed, for the most part, as separate sub-disciplines of the general disci- pline of economics. However, as discussed later in this chapter, more holistic, ecological thinking about natural resource and environmental issues and problems led to somewhat of a merging of these two sub-disciplines. But I first consider the historical development of these sub-disciplines as separate fields of study and teaching. John C. Bergstrom - 9781788114288 Downloaded from https://www.elgaronline.com/ at 01/05/2024 03:17:47AM via free access