Valuing Biodiversity from an economic perspective: A unified economic, ecological, and genetic approach

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Brock, WA; Xepapadeas, A
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; University of Crete
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/000282803322655464
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 1597-1614
• 关键词: productivity; diversity; EVOLUTION

摘要

We develop a conceptual framework for valuing biodiversity from an economic perspective. We argue for a dynamic economic welfare measure of biodiversity that complements the literature on benefit-cost approaches and genetic distance/phylogenic tree approaches. Using a unified model of optimal economic management of an ecosystem under ecological and genetic constraints, we identify gains from management policies leading to a more diverse system, using the Bellman state valuation function of the problem. We show that a more diverse system could attain a higher value although the genetic distance of the species in the more diverse system could be almost zero.