Conservation Priorities and Environmental Offsets: Markets for Florida Wetlands

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Aronoff, Daniel; Rafey, Will
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282; 1944-7981
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20231016
• 发表日期: 2026-05
• 页码: 1723-1764
• 关键词: EMISSIONS REGULATION; dynamic-models; LAND-COVER; perfect; ECONOMICS; gains; COSTS

摘要

We introduce an empirical framework for valuing markets in environmental offsets. Using newly collected data on wetland conservation and offsets, we apply this framework to evaluate a set of decentralized markets in Florida, where land developers purchase offsets from long-lived producers who restore wetlands over time. We find offsets led to substantial private gains from trade, creating $2.4 billion of net surplus from 1995 to 2020 relative to direct conservation. Offset trading also generated new hydrological externalities. A locally differentiated Pigouvian tax would have prevented $1.6 billion of new flood damage while preserving more than two-thirds of the private gains from trade. (JEL D47, D62, H23, Q24, Q54, Q57, R14)