Reconciling resource economics and ecological economics: the economics of sustainability and resilience

Cross disciplinary dialogue between economics and ecology has within economics centered on the two subdisciplines of bioeconomics and ecological economics. This division in economics reflects the division in ecology between population and systems ecologists. Recent developments in ecology are aimed at a more integrated approach to ecologic al research. One example of such an approach is that of models based on thermodynamic reaction networks. By applying the “Law of Mass Action” to biochemical descriptions of ecological networks, it is possible to reformulate ecological systems models as population dynamic models, which can then be embedded within a bioeconomic model framework. Analysis of bioeconomic models far from thermodynamic equilibrium is then possible from within either a steady-state or ergodic framework. The Glansdorff-Prigogine or other related stability criteria from non-equilibrium thermodynamics may then be applied to the study of bioeconomic systems.