This chapter discusses the essence of economics, explaining the concepts of opportunity costs, scarcity, the objectives of choice, and the mechanisms of allocating scarce resources. The scientific approach to economics is also discussed, as well as the problems faced by scientific economists.

One of the first topics addressed in this chapter is the nature of an 'industry' and the related question of whether tourism can be considered to be an industry. This leads into concepts such as commodities and the challenges of measuring the economic magnitude of tourism and its contributions to...

This chapter explores the concept of cost management in the tourism, hospitality and events (THE) facilities context. The chapter notes the importance of costs at both a tangible and intangible level. This includes the cost of physical resources such as equipment and materials, in addition to the...

This chapter explores farm-level economic considerations that have an important bearing on the financial incentive for farmers to participate in agri-environment schemes. It does this by examining the evidence from three case study farms in the UK, all of which were all-lowland farms with a mix of...

For the purposes of this book on the economics of animal health and production, this chapter defines economics as the study of making rational choices/decisions in the allocation of scarce resources for the achievement of competing goals. Some underlying economic concepts that are important to...

This chapter contributes to the discussion on new policy options for less-favoured areas (LFAs) by presenting a set of conceptual ideas in directing policy strategy development for alleviating the constraints faced by land users in these regions. Using drylands as an example, the chapter first...

This chapter presents examples which would have benefited from lateral thinking at the planning and economic evaluation stage. The examples given are: (i) the hidden costs in small-scale irrigation projects; (ii) the cost of failure; (iii) the cost of good supervision; (iv) spending money on...

This chapter briefly reviews the logic behind payments for environmental services (PES) and examines the potential for using a PES programme to address environmental and poverty concerns in the Manupali watershed in the Philippines. It is indicated that PES is not a universal solution to...

This chapter highlights key socioeconomic factors that affect farmer adoption of integrated pest management (IPM); identifies economic considerations (opportunity cost of pesticide use, uncertain benefits and positive marginal returns, and economic thresholds) that explain farmers' behaviour and...

The main contention of this paper is that the adoption of natural resource management techniques that require an investment in cash or other resources depends not simply on the absolute profitability of the investment, but also on its relative profitability within the diverse activities undertaken...