Biological Communities as Economic Subjects

Abstract

When the natural resource management is considered by means of economics, biological associations are only regarded as the source of resources and the object of ownership from the part of economic agents (households, firms or the state). Such approach does not allow studying certain types of situations, like interaction of an economic agent and a natural ecosystem, property rights over which are not well defined, and does not account for system attributes of the environment. This study proposes to consider biological associations (populations or ecosystems) as specific economic subjects. It is shown that these associations regularly face the choice between various alternative uses of scarce means, which constitutes economic choice by definition. Different levels of organization in nature and economy are compared. It is defined at which level biological associations can be regarded as the subjects of economic choice in a way analogous to economic agents. A term «agent of evolutionary process»is coined for such associations. The main similarities between economic and ecological systems are listed, namely: spontaneous character of processes, crucial role of internal factors, expansion as the main criterion of determining winners and losers, high number of agents. Key differences between the two types of systems are indicated, which are: much higher number of alternatives treated by the economic agents and higher speed of reaction of the economic agents to the changes in the environment. The conclusion is made that the models where ecosystems are regarded as acting subjects are possible and useful.

Keywords

• economics
• natural resource management
• subjects of economic choice
• externalities
• ecosystems
• populations
• natural selection
• agents of evolutionary process
• modelling