Land in economics comprises all naturally occurring resources whose supply is inherently fixed (i.e., does not respond to changes in price), such as geographical locations (excluding infrastructural improvements and "natural capital", which can be changed by human actions), mineral deposits, and even geostationary orbit locations and portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In classical economics it is considered one of three factors of production (along with capital and labor). Income derived from ownership or control of natural resources is often referred to as rent. Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor Look up economics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with geosynchronous orbit. ... Legend: γ = Gamma rays HX = Hard X-rays SX = Soft X-Rays EUV = Extreme ultraviolet NUV = Near ultraviolet Visible light NIR = Near infrared MIR = Moderate infrared FIR = Far infrared Radio waves: EHF = Extremely high frequency (Microwaves) SHF = Super high frequency (Microwaves) UHF = Ultra high frequency VHF = Very high frequency HF = High... Classical economics is widely regarded as the first modern school of economic thought. ... Factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services in economics. ... Capital has a number of related meanings in economics, finance and accounting. ... In economic theory, economic rent is an analytic term employed to distinguish the difference between the income earned by an input or factor of production, and the cost of the factor of production. ...

Land was sometimes defined in classical and neoclassical economics as the "original and indestructible powers of the soil."[1] Georgists hold that this implies a perfectly inelastic supply curve (i.e., zero elasticity), suggesting that a land value tax that recovers the rent of land for public purposes would not affect the opportunity cost of using land, but would instead only decrease the value of owning it. This view is supported by evidence that although land can come on and off the market, market inventories of land show if anything an inverse relationship to price (i.e., negative elasticity). And although land (especially in the form of, e.g., mineral deposits) must first be discovered in order to have value or be put to use, it is generally conceded that the fruits of scientific discoveries, whether of natural laws or of mineral deposits, cannot rightly be monopolized for purposes of private economic rent capture. Neoclassical economics refers to a general approach (a metatheory) to economics based on supply and demand which depends on individuals (or any economic agent) operating rationally, each seeking to maximize their individual utility or profit by making choices based on available information. ... Henry George Georgism, named after Henry George (1839-1897), is a philosophy and economic ideology that follows from the belief that everyone owns what they create, but everything supplied by nature, most importantly land, belongs equally to all humanity. ... One typical application of the concept of elasticity is to consider what happens to consumer demand for a good (for example, a product) when prices increase. ... The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ... Land value taxation (LVT), or site value taxation, is the policy of raising state revenues by charging each landholder a portion of the value of a site or parcel of land that would exist even if that site had no improvements. ... In economics, opportunity cost, or economic cost, is the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone (and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable forgone alternative (or highest-valued option forgone), i. ...

Land, particularly geographic locations and mineral desposits, has historically been the cause of much conflict and dispute; land reform programmes, which are designed to redistribute possession and/or use of geographic land, are often the cause of much controversy, and conflicts over the economic rent of mineral deposits have contributed to many civil wars, particularly in Africa. Land reform (also agrarian reform, though that can have a broader meaning) is an often-controversial type of government-initiated or government-backed real estate property redistribution, generally of agricultural land. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ...

See also

• Environmental economics
• Natural resource
• Renewable resource
• Resource economics

Environmental economics is a subfield of economics concerned with environmental issues (other usages of the term are not uncommon). ... A renewable resource is any natural resource that is depleted at a rate slower than the rate at which it regenerates. ... The field of resource economics includes the study of environmental economics, agricultural production and marketing, bioeconomics, community economic development, resource utilization, and environmental policy. ...

References

• Anthony C. Fisher (1987). "natural resources," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 612-14.