Traditionally, natural resource economists have examined resource use in isolation of the economy of which it is part. In this thesis, I show theoretically and empirically how natural resource exploitation decisions are linked to other economic sectors in developing countries. These linkages open new possibilities for managing the amount of effort allocated to an open access or common property resource sector. I show theoretically how imperfectly integrated rural households are connected through the use of a common property resource. As the amount of labor in a village economy increases, Nash behavior converges to atomistic competition and the average value of labor in the resource sector equals its marginal value in other sectors. Resource rents dissipate as the number of users increases and resource stocks decrease.In a context of many natural resource users, increasing returns in other sectors (e.g., agriculture) increases economy-wide demand for labor, puts upward pressure on economy wages, and decreases the use of natural resource. Less use allows resource stocks to recover in the long-run. At the same time, increases in income can increase demand for the resource and mitigate or undo improvements in resource stocks. In a Honduran example, I show that higher agricultural prices pull local labor out of an open access fishery. Higher returns in the fishery draw in more labor from outside the local economy and push fish stocks down towards their previous levels. This analysis reveals the potential for improvement by creating a restricted-access commons instead of a pure open access resource sector Chapters 2 and 3 explore household labor allocation decisions to investigate if migration and agricultural productivity influence the use of a local, open access resource in rural Mexico. Having a migrant in the United States increases the probability that a household invests in a gas stove and conditional on this investment, households with a migrant spend fewer days collecting firewood and spend more money on gas for cooking. In addition, agricultural households with higher agricultural productivity and marginal values of labor on the farm spend fewer days collecting firewood and purchase more gas. This occurs as the marginal value of labor on the farm represents the opportunity cost of time allocated to resource extraction.This thesis shows that natural resource exploitation decisions do not happen in isolation. This has implications for understanding the impact of development on natural resource stocks and provides a new toolkit for managing the amount of effort allocated to resource extraction. Even while resource rents remain dissipated, changes in non-resource sectors have the potential to influence resource extraction and the natural capital of a developing community. Altering users' opportunity costs can be used in concert with traditional natural resource management policies to increase the effectiveness of resource management in developing countries.