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http://hdl.handle.net/10419/28150
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| Title: | | The private and public insurance value of conservative biodiversity management  |
| Authors: | | Baumgärtner, Stefan Quaas, Martin F. |
| Issue Date: | | 2006 |
| Series/Report no.: | | University of Lüneburg working paper series in economics 33 |
| Abstract: | | The ecological literature suggests that biodiversity reduces the variance of ecosystem services. Thus, conservative biodiversity management has an insurance value to risk-averse users of ecosystem services. We analyze a conceptual ecological-economic model in which such management measures generate a private benefit and, via ecosystem processes at higher hierarchical levels, a positive externality on other ecosystem users. We find that ecosystem management and environmental policy depend on the extent of uncertainty and risk-aversion as follows: (i) Individual effort to improve ecosystem quality unambiguously increases. The free-rider problem may decrease or increase, depending on the characteristics of the ecosystem and its management; in particular, (ii) the size of the externality may decrease or increase, depending on how individual and aggregate management effort influence biodiversity; and (iii) the welfare loss due to free-riding may decrease or increase, depending on how biodiversity influences ecosystem service provision. |
| Subjects: | | biodiversity ecosystem services ecosystem management free-riding insurance public good risk-aversion uncertainty |
| JEL: | | Q57 H23 D8 D62 |
| Document Type: | | Working Paper |
| Appears in Collections: | | Working Paper Series in Economics, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
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