How can natural resource management frameworks inform policies to preserve antibiotic effectiveness and limit resistance?
The problems facing those combating antibiotic resistance are similar to problems in managing renewable and nonrenewable resources. Many of the issues, as well as possible solutions, overlap. However, those involved in managing antibiotics face a few field-specific challenges, such as the nature of the health-care industry and the role of hospital infections.
Approaching the issue of antibiotic resistance from the perspective of economics and natural resource management is a logical, effective strategy that may lead to significant and lasting solutions.
Problems of optimal natural resource extraction that were first addressed by economists in the contexts of fisheries and forests have reemerged in the context of a newly recognized resource: antibiotic effectiveness. This review introduces economists to the growing literature on optimal use, innovation, and regulation of antibiotic effectiveness. Along the way, we draw links and parallels to similar problems in the management of other resources with which economists may be more familiar, and we address new questions that have arisen in the context of antibiotic effectiveness but that are also relevant to other resources.

